What is the verdict?
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 ...
How many of them were cases where the parent was only away for a few moments, and had the vehicle in plain sight the whole time?
I guess I didn’t realize they’d gotten all the hookers and drug dealers and gang-bangers off the streets of Chicago.
So do we arrest anyone who fuels their car while leaving their child inside? After all, *gasp* what if the parent has to walk to the cashier window and pay for the fuel?
Not only will no jury convict her, the police dept. and prosecutor’s office should have to pay her attorney fees.
What is the verdict?
And how many have been prosecuted?
Most don’t seem to get anything. But this lady is hauled away and her three children left at the store, UNATTENDED.
Yeah, that was the right thing to do.
And I’m one of those mom’s who didn’t like to leave my baby in the car while I paid for my gas. Dad would fill my car up for me instead. What a guy!
Where the parents were a few feet away and able to observe the vehicle?
There was probably tens of thousands of incidents.
For two minutes while I walked 10 yards away with the car never out of my sight? Sure, why not?
I didn't know I was being watched so intently but 300 of those incidents were mine. Do it almost every day. Didn't know it was a crime. IS there anything left that isn't a crime?
This is usually just a throw-away charge for someone who was going to be arrested anyway. Not usually much required to get charged with obstruction.
Not guilty.
If she was donating to Planned Parenthood, this would all go away.
Leftist Facist nazis on Patroll..Making the world safer for the Brave new world.
"NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED."
And this POOR mom gets targeted for leaving a child for moments only, to donate to a Christian cause. Right? This smells.
The first thoughts I had when I read the headline. There were so many cases where the mother has gotten off but the one of the principal that left her child in 90-degree heat all day and of course claimed she thought she had dropped the child off at daycare. But then there was video of her RETURNING TO THE CAR SEVERAL TIMES and yet she failed to notice her child. I think it was for smoke breaks. Discusting but all relevant to ones position in life as far as the cases I have read.
Whether people realize it or not, there is a war going on against the generally law-abiding taxpayer. Its much easier to squeeze the compliant than go after real criminals.
Actually, Harrison’s Hope was founded because parents who left children in a van and were right next to it watched as the van went into gear because the kids touched the shifter and careened across a park on the Missouri river and killed Harrison Struttman and seriously injured his sister and mother who could not even attend her son’s funeral.
Some parents have even been unfortunate to watch their car get stolen from in front of the convenience store they went in to.
That’s not what I asked, however.
Hey, I think a parent would have to be incredibly stupid to leave their child alone in a vehicle, even if in plain sight. However, I’m always suspect when we see vague statistics thrown around with no underlying context to them. The skeptical side of me.
Justice doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Just political correctness. I do wonder if the donation made her and her children a target.
Another case of a state agency looking to justify their existence.
My boy and his wife lived in Monroeville, AL. One night their 10-year-old son was put to bed, he and a buddy decided to play cop. They climbed out the bedroom window and went into town, shining a flashlight into storefronts "looking for robbers".
The cops brought the kids home and the parents thought that was the end of it. The next day a case worker came around to "investigate". My boy told him that he put the kid to bed and that was it. "So, you left the chid unattended. We'll have to look into this." Luckily the wife knew the mayor's wife and one phone call scuttled that gambit but it scared the yell out of the wife as the guy was talking about taking the kid. They left the state soon after.
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