Posted on 03/12/2008 12:53:40 PM PDT by Southerngl
Case of Illinois Mother on Trial for Leaving Child in Car for Minutes Sparks Debate CHICAGO — Treffly Coyne was out of her car for just minutes and no more than 10 yards away. But that was long and far enough to land her in court after a police officer spotted her sleeping 2-year-old daughter alone in the vehicle; Coyne had taken her two older daughters to pour $8.29 in coins into a Salvation Army kettle. Minutes later, she was under arrest — the focus of both a police investigation and a probe by the state's child welfare agency. Now the case that has become an Internet flash point for people who either blast police for overstepping their authority or Coyne for putting a child in danger. The 36-year-old suburban mother is preparing to go on trial Thursday on misdemeanor charges of child endangerment and obstructing a peace officer. If convicted, she could be sentenced to a year in jail and fined $2,500, even though child welfare workers found no credible evidence of abuse or neglect. On Dec. 8 Coyne decided to drive to Wal-Mart in the Chicago suburb of Crestwood so her children and a young friend could donate the coins they'd collected at her husband's office.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Crazy. If she had the car in sight—? Hey, arrest me.
This is insane. Absolutely insane.
It's ALL about the money. They couldn't care one wit about the child.
I expect this kind of authoritarian nonsense in Illinois. When the people are debarred the use of arms the government’s natural inclination is towards tyranny.
bttt
Maybe they wanted her to stay in the car and send her two young daughters out to put the money in. That seems more risky to me.
This is absurd. There should be NO law prohibiting a child from being alone in an OBSERVED vehicle.
Wait. How many women and men have left a child in a car that has DIED, and NOT been prosecuted?
And this POOR mom gets targeted for leaving a child for moments only, to donate to a Christian cause. Right? This smells.
“This is insane. Absolutely insane.”
Yep. Selling national security related technology to foreign governments for laundered campaign contributions is OK, but getting out of your car to put money in a Salvation Army kettle while your child is within eyesight in your own vehicle is a criminal act.
The criminal justice system is just another government bureaucracy, and as such is just another all-devouring monster. It takes people in as raw meat and grinds them into sausage. Any result from that system you could call “justice” is merely the unintended byproduct of sausage grinding.
Who is John Galt?
>>...obstructing a peace officer<<
I wasn’t there, but this may be the one that has teeth, depending on what she did.
No jury is going to convict her. I wonder if the reason she got charged at all really had more to do with “obstructing a peace officer” (perhaps with shoving and/or foul language) than with leaving the child unattended but within sight for a few minutes. On the other hand, this may well be a case where an officer thought he saw a serious situation, got hot under the collar, and then didn’t want to admit he was wrong and back down when he started getting the real picture. The jury will sort it out, but I suspect even if she gave him a nasty shove and hurled obscenities at him, the jury will buy that this was a mother desperate to get back to her toddler, and that the officer shouldn’t have gotten between them.
More awesome police work!, Brilliant!
She probably freaked out when the cop confronted her and told her he was taking her child into “protective custody.” So when the State comes down on you, if you dare protest, you will be crushed...
I heard her attorney on WLSAM. I think they’re going to bore the officer another poopchute.
Would you leave a million dollars in a car?
Last year there were 900 incidents where children were left unattended in vehicles. Over 200 of them died.
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