Is Forgetting a Child in a Car Criminal?

Aug. 17, 2001 — -- Every week it seems there's another case, the lifeless body of a child is found in a car under the blazing sun and each time the reactions range from outrage that parents could be so negligent to deep sympathy for their loss. When it comes to prosecutors' handling of the cases, the range has been equally broad.

This year alone, according to Kids 'N Cars, a group that advocates for legislation and public awareness campaigns regarding child-safety in automobiles, 56 children have died when they were left unattended in cars, and prosecutors from Florida to California are facing the dilemma of trying to decide when negligence becomes criminal.

Even parents who accidentally left their children behind — whether from forgetfulness, distraction, or medication that dulled their thought process — can find themselves faced with charges ranging from negligence to manslaughter or even second-degree murder.

But according to a study of such cases by Anara Guard, the director of information with the Boston University School of Public Health, prosecutors are more likely to charge such parents than grand juries are.

"Grand juries represent the will of the community," Guard said. "Frequently when it is the parents themselves, the grand juries tend to feel the parents have suffered enough and they don't indict."

In the fraction of cases when the person who leaves the child in the car is a day care provider or baby sitter, the incidence of charges being filed is much higher, she said.

"I think there's good reason for that," Guard said. "That's their job and they're not supposed to be doing other things like running errands or going shopping."

Often the argument against prosecuting parents who — until their fatal mistake — were considered good parents is emotional, based on whether they need to be made to feel that what they did was wrong.

"I don't think sending a parent to jail is going to make a parent feel any worse," Kids 'N Cars co-founder Michelle Struttman said. "I think any parent would go to jail for the rest of their life if it would bring their child back."

Prosecutors say that when deciding whether to prosecute parents in these cases, they will often consider whether leaving the child unattended was part of a pattern of neglect or even abuse, or whether it was a tragic aberration.

"I think what you have to look at is that these cases are so different," Polk, Iowa, Assistant County Attorney George Karnas said. "Some parents have a history of being grossly reckless as parents. Whether that evidence is presented or not, it can enter into your judgement."

What Makes a Crime?

At issue for Al Parrish, an Iowa attorney who argues that parents who have no history of neglect or abuse before they forgot their children in a vehicle should not be prosecuted, is the question of criminal intent.

"I think what we're trying to do is criminalize a lot of conduct we don't need to criminalize," he said. "These parents are suffering already from the fact that they made the mistake. I'm not sure our criminal statutes were made for mothers who left their kids in these cars."

He said that if there is no criminal intent, there should be no charges filed.

In one of the more publicized cases, an Iowa hospital administrator left her 7-month-old daughter in her minivan while she attended meetings. The little girl died, and the woman, Kari Engholm, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

The prosecutor handling the case, Dallas County Attorney Wayne Reisetter, would not comment on why the woman was charged.

A Choice of Charges

In the case of Marlene Heath, a Simi Valley, Calif., woman whose two sons died while she allegedly slept in her house for four hours, prosecutors always felt she should be charged. She is facing two counts of felony child endangerment with conduct resulting in the death of a child and conduct resulting in grave injury to a child.

If she is convicted, she could face from six years to 12 years-and-eight months in prison.

"There was never a question of whether to charge her," Ventura County Deputy District Attorney Susan Aramesh Ruggles said. "It was only a question of what to charge her with."

Besides the child endangerment charges, prosecutors considered involuntary manslaughter, which carries a sentence of up to 4 years, and second degree murder, which could have resulted in a sentence of 15 years-to-life in prison.

Like the prosecutor in the Engholm case, Ruggles declined to comment on the reason for the particular charge, since the case is ongoing, but she did say that there are "a lot of facts that are not a matter of public record yet."

In another recent case in Minneapolis, a man whose 4-month-old son died after being left in a minivan for eight hours was indicted on July 26 on a charge of second-degree manslaughter involving child endangerment.

In that case, though, the decision on how to charge the man, Kevin Daley, was made by a grand jury.

A History of Compassion

According to the Kids 'N Cars' database dating back to 1980, of 178 cases in which children died of heat-related illnesses after being left in cars 49 percent occurred when the parents themselves left their children in the car and 26 percent happened when the children got into the cars themselves. In 55 percent of the cases, the children were 1 year old or younger.

Charges were filed in at least 65 cases, and of those 26 ended in convictions.

According to a study done by The Des Moines Register of 39 cases in which parents forgot their children in their cars and were not suspected of neglect, but were sidetracked by other factors, prosecutors and grand juries seem to take a sympathetic view towards the grieving families.

Charges were filed in only 11 cases, and in one of those, the charge was eventually dismissed. In 23 cases no charges were filed, and in the others, charges were either still pending or the paper was unable to determine whether any action was taken.