Posted on 03/13/2015 5:56:47 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
HILLSBORO, Oregon — An Oregon father whose 6-month-old daughter died after he left her inside his car at his workplace for six hours will not face criminal charges.
The Oregonian reports (http://is.gd/ZdYV0s ) that a Washington County prosecutor in the Portland suburb of Hillsboro announced that decision Friday.
According to earlier court documents, 38-year-old Intel engineer Joshua Freier told police he had forgotten his daughter, Jillian, was still in the car when he drove to work last October. She was found unresponsive and could not be revived.
Although the car became hot, a medical examiner determined that the baby likely did not die from the heat. An autopsy was inconclusive, but the medical examiner said it's possible that her ability to breathe could have been cut off because of her upright position in her car seat.
Deputy District Attorney Kevin Barton reviewed the case. He had been waiting for evidence analysis at a federal crime lab before making a charging decision.
Wrong:
Unless you are from another planet and not human or something you are most certainly just as capable of making this mistake as anyone else. You are made the same as the rest of us and your brain is no exception.
I think if he had been able to put the carseat in the front, he would have still “forgot” but couldn’t use the excuse that she was in the backseat. Hell, I always knew I had infants and toddlers in the back seat in carseats. It ain’t that hard.
Real people who don’t leave their kids in the car for six hours and forget they’re there.
And all I can say is your experience sounds messed up to me. I don’t and never forgot my children, ever. I sure as hell didn’t forget about them for 6 hours no matter how “busy” I was.
OMG ROTFLMAO. I assure you I never forgot I had a child for 6 minutes let alone 6 hours. That’s just nuts and negligent.
A “mistake” is NOT leaving a child alone for 6 hours or even 6 minutes.
A child dying, by leaving him/her alone for 6 hours, is not a mistake. It’s gross negligence.
I raised 4 kids; school, sports, brownies, other activities,while caring for dying parents, tons of other activities and responsibilities. Never forgot I had a kid for 6 minutes let alone 6 hours.
You can spin it all you want but reality is no one forgets they have a kid for 6 hours unless there is mental illness, retardation, or negligence. Or criminal activity.
I’m actually dumbfounded that this thread is about this poor, put upon parent who forgot he had a kid for hours!
There’s no “there but for the Grace of God” either because a parent doesn’t leave their baby in a car for 6 hours.
Or maybe I ain’t crazy or retarded or messed up in other ways? Seriously, this post and others sound like crazytown to me. No normal parent “forgets” their child for 6 hours.
I wouldn’t and didn’t make this same “mistake” and frankly it’s not a “mistake.” Let’s call it what it is. Gross parental neglect. That doesn’t mean the Dad, or Mom, killed the kid on purpose, but it means he contributed to her death through neglect.
And no, most of us wouldn’t be capable of doing this. This is not just a mistake.
This is another reason our society is spirally out of control.
This judge has just provided a pain-free formula for homicidal parents.
Apparently, my brain (and everything else) is an exception according to you.
Yep. How sad is that?
Seems to be the same everywhere lately.
Why is the wife/mother suffering more?
Out of sight/out of mind is an acceptable excuse for forgetting you have a child? Babies play a minor role in the lives of working adults? Really?
You were “abandoned” and you post it on the internet yet you’re ok? so many years later? Hmm.
And if the Dad was just able to put the kid in the front seat this would have never happened?
OMG the disconnect is atrocious.
And you can take your self righteous so called Christian Conservative stance and shove it because it’s neither.
Well...Obviously, the auto insurance company has had to deal with it or they wouldn’t have included it in its educational auto safety course.
Nonsense.
What I said was any punishment the authorities could give him pales in comparison to what he will have to go through for the rest of his life in grief and torment. Or as some other commenter wrote: A year in prison will cost this man his career. His home. His savings. It will bankrupt his family. For what reason? Punishment?
I didn't say it was right what happened to this man's infant daughter. But people do make mistakes. Even parents do. Especially parents who may be young and inexperienced or stressed from work or preoccupied with financial problems or just not used to having an infant in their lives yet. There are any number of reasons a parent may forget and leave the infant in the car. The source article does not give any details. But someone in authority felt compassion for the man's mistake and decided in their best judgment, that any punishment beyond what the man had already heaped upon himself, was not called for.
But, of course, you've never made a mistake in your life have you? The perfect and judgmental person that you are.
What kind of class warfare talk is that for FreeRepublic?
Maybe I should have added a /sarc? Seriously it’s a horrible story. I’d have killed myself or taken the punishment I deserved behind bars if it happened to me. There would be no fighting spirit left in me for my own survival and freedom. I’m not sure God could forgive me and I probably would not ask for forgiveness. I couldn’t imagine facing my wife ever again.
Your ignorance is exceptional, I'll give you that.
I'm sure he didn't.And that's why,rather than being charged with capital murder,he should be charged with "involuntary manslaughter" or "negligent homicide".
Or maybe something that would get him even less time.
LOL!! And her/his arrogance — that’s exceptional, as well!
The father was initially investigated on accusations of second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, first-degree criminal mistreatment and second-degree child neglect charges but the DA finally determined that this was nothing more than a "tragic and unintentional accident." He was not able to prove any charges based on the autopsy and other facts collected.
These type cases were handled similarly when I lived in Arizona where this happens more often that one might think. Most prosecutors are not trying to make their careers on the backs of some mistake and accident that a parent makes and that the general public are sympathetic to. Most people can see that but for the grace of God, go themselves.
The father will not be charged because the prosecutor can't make a case for a crime being committed.
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