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Father charged after daughter falls into pond (Dog saves drowning girl!)
Charleston Post and Courier ^ | 5 Sept 2010 | Andy Paras

Posted on 09/05/2010 10:52:52 AM PDT by Feline_AIDS

CHARLESTON — A Charleston man is charged with unlawful neglect after deputies say one of his twin daughters walked out of their home and fell into a pond while he slept.

Authorities responded to 2903 Doncaster Drive at 6:13 p.m. Thursday and found one of the 1-year-old girls neck deep in a pond behind the house. A dog was in the water with her, preventing the girl from going under, a Charleston County Sheriff’s Office incident report said.

Deputies charged Adam S. Gray, 33, with unlawful neglect by a custodian after firefighters pulled the girl from the pond and took her to a local hospital to be evaluated, the report said.

A Charleston police officer entered the house through an unlocked back door and found Gray asleep in bed. The officer was able to wake him up after several attempts, the report said.

Gray told officers he put the sleeping children inside their cribs about 5 p.m. and closed the door to their upstairs bedroom before going to his room next to it and falling asleep. He said he usually could hear the girls if they attempted to go down the stairs but didn’t this time, the report said.

Police say the twins were able to push down a gate at the edge of the stairwell and then walk downstairs and out the back door, when one of them fell into the pond. A neighbor heard the girl’s playful voice and called police.

The mother took custody of the children.

Gray does not have any felony convictions in South Carolina, according to a State Law Enforcement Division criminal record check.

A magistrate set Gray’s bail at $10,000 Friday.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: South Carolina
KEYWORDS: charleston; dogs; donutwatch; drowning; neglect
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"A dog was in the water with her, preventing the girl from going under, a Charleston County Sheriff’s Office incident report said."
1 posted on 09/05/2010 10:52:55 AM PDT by Feline_AIDS
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To: Feline_AIDS

Pit bull?


2 posted on 09/05/2010 10:55:19 AM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 589 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
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To: Feline_AIDS

I don’t know, do other FReepers think I am crazy?

A father puts his kids to bed, closes the door and falls asleep. The kids get out of the house (I did this as a child myself) and the father gets arrested on a 10K bond, even though he doesn’t seem to have any kind of a record.

Now granted it would have been a tragedy if something had happened, and we may not know the full story, but kids do sometimes escape.


3 posted on 09/05/2010 10:57:21 AM PDT by I still care (I believe in the universality of freedom -George Bush, asked if he regrets going to war.)
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To: Feline_AIDS

So these girls climbed out of cribs, opened a door, took down a gate and opened another door. Either Dad’s lying or these parents are in for it!


4 posted on 09/05/2010 10:57:31 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (If Bam is the answer, the question was stupid.)
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To: null and void

Dachshund?


5 posted on 09/05/2010 10:57:38 AM PDT by Feline_AIDS (A gun in hand is better than a cop on the phone.)
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To: Feline_AIDS

Under Obammunism, any accidents your child get into while you are asleep are a pretext to charge you with neglect.
There is no room for the actual concept of “Accident”.

There are a fair number of freepers who embrace this view.


6 posted on 09/05/2010 10:57:53 AM PDT by MrEdd (Heck? Geewhiz Cripes, thats the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aint going.)
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To: null and void

what was his bac


7 posted on 09/05/2010 10:58:38 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys)
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To: I still care

Maybe all the cocaine and beer bottles on his bedroom floor made them suspicious. (kidding)


8 posted on 09/05/2010 10:58:38 AM PDT by Feline_AIDS (A gun in hand is better than a cop on the phone.)
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To: Feline_AIDS
The kid:

Got out of a crib
Opened the bedroom door
Went down the stairs
Opened the door of the house
Opened the gate
Went to the pond.

Exactly how much was the father supposed to do to prevent this? Tie the kid to the crib? You get in trouble for that. How about lock the kid's bedroom door from the outside? Well, you get in trouble for that too.

Meanwhile, a witness actually saw the kid neck deep in the pond -- and merely called 911. The witness knowingly left the kid in danger and waited for a professional rescue team to show up. I call that negligence.

But, hey, they decided to charge Dad for taking a nap.

You know, bad things happen -- or almost happen. We cannot arrest someone every time an unfortunate event nearly occurs.

9 posted on 09/05/2010 10:59:21 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: ClearCase_guy

He may have been sleeping one off


10 posted on 09/05/2010 11:00:37 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys)
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To: I still care
If Dad's telling the truth, these parents are in for a sprint keeping these girls safe. The story says they're 1 year old. I'm think they may be closer to two. Still, it's gonna be a circus.

And I don't see why Dad was arrested either but in our current society it doesn't take much.

11 posted on 09/05/2010 11:00:46 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (If Bam is the answer, the question was stupid.)
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To: Feline_AIDS

Sorry, I don’t agree with filing charges against this guy. Sometimes little kids do crazy things. Yes, you should be vigilant, and should take reasonable precautions, but you can’t spend every minute of the day and night hovering over them on the chance that they might suddenly figure out how to operate something as complex as a doorknob. Sounds like this one was a real escape artist, managing at least two closed doors, plus a toddler gate. If I were the guy, I’d go before a judge, tell him that this is the first time something like this has happened, and that given the kid’s ability there would be new deadbolts at the top of my exterior doors once I got home. Parents should be responsible, but there are some things that just can’t be easily anticipated.


12 posted on 09/05/2010 11:01:44 AM PDT by Little Pig (Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

The article reports a neighbor “heard” her voice; did you acquire info from another source?


13 posted on 09/05/2010 11:02:06 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heros have always been cowboys)
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To: Feline_AIDS

Where to begin. One-year-olds can remove gate, get downstairs and out the door to the pond...? Neighbor hears a kid not even crying, but calls the police anyway? Without even looking to see if there’s a reason? Because if s/he’d looked s/he’d have taken the child out of the water, no? “Firefighters pulled the girl from the pond?” How many did it take?
Good dog! Bad journalist!


14 posted on 09/05/2010 11:02:17 AM PDT by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast
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To: yldstrk
what was his bac

Exactly.
15 posted on 09/05/2010 11:02:37 AM PDT by tongue-tied ("Never use more than four words to say 'I don't know'")
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To: yldstrk

Or he may have been the exhausted father of twins under the age of two.


16 posted on 09/05/2010 11:02:37 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (If Bam is the answer, the question was stupid.)
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To: Feline_AIDS

I’m failing to see the crime here. Unless the father was sleeping one off, and the paper would be quick to point it out if he was, there is no crime, that I can see.


17 posted on 09/05/2010 11:03:54 AM PDT by cardinal4 (Kagan and Sotomayor-Hope and Change)
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Comment #18 Removed by Moderator

To: I still care

I once found a child and a dog running loose in the street. The little boy was clearly told not to talk to strangers and ran home. I stayed with the dog until the mom came looking for it a few minutes latter. She was aghast to learn that the child had been out too. She had put special things on the door to keep the kid from opening them but he defeated them. All she did was go to the bathroom. Yes the result could have been tragic in that case too since there were multiple child sex offenders living in the area but as you say “kids do sometimes escape”.

I would want to know a whole lot more about this situation before forming any opinions.


19 posted on 09/05/2010 11:05:23 AM PDT by lovesdogs
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To: I still care
I don’t know, do other FReepers think I am crazy?

'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'

20 posted on 09/05/2010 11:05:37 AM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 589 of our national holiday from reality. - 0bama really isn't one of US.)
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