neglect

Published on: December 15, 2014

Father Sentenced For Chaining Boy to Bed

A man who was charged with child endangerment and abuse for allegedly chaining his 7 year old son to a bed while he went to work was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 30 days of house arrest.

The father reportedly said he couldn’t afford childcare services while he went to work and didn’t want his son running around the neighborhood. Although the child was not injured by the heavy chain that was secured to his ankle, and the boy had access to water, snacks, and the bathroom, the prosecutor said the father’s actions “absolutely rose to the level of child abuse” according to the Herald Journal.

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Published on: October 6, 2014

Grandma Charged For Leaving Baby At Home Alone While Partying

by Staycie R. Sena

A mom dropped off her one-year old child at her grandmother’s house at 8 a.m. on a Wednesday morning. She later attempted to contact the grandmother by phone at about 10 p.m. the same night but was unable to reach her. Fearing for the woman’s safety, the concerned daughter called police, who entered the apartment at about 1 a.m. to allegedly find the house empty, with the small child unsupervised, sleeping on the couch.

About fifteen minutes later, the grandmother returned home and reportedly told police she was “sitting on a wall drinking with a friend.” She supposedly returned to her apartment because she saw police and flashing lights around her apartment and thought, “they must be here for me.”

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Published on: March 10, 2010

Virtual Reality

by Staycie R. Sena

This headline stopped me dead in my tracks: “Couple Let Baby Starve to Death While Raising Virtual Baby Online”. What? Wait- WHAT?! The tragedy of Korean couple Kim Yoo-chul, 41 and Choi Mi-sun, 25 has made headlines all over the world. CNN reports that the couple let their real daughter starve to death while playing a virtual-reality game where they raised a virtual daughter in 12-hour on-line sessions at a local internet cafe. “The couple seemed to have lost their will to live a normal life because they didn’t have jobs and gave birth to a premature baby, Chung Jin-Won, a police officer, told the Korean press. “They indulged themselves in the online game of raising a virtual character so as to escape from reality, which led to the death of their real baby.” The couple are likely facing charges of child abuse, child neglect and homicide.

Like most people I was perplexed by such recklessness. As a mother, I simply can’t imagine what would compel a parent to neglect a baby so drastically. But, as a criminal defense attorney who has represented many parents in criminal child abuse or child neglect cases, there are a few things troubling about this story. First and foremost, there’s no allegation that the baby was ever left unsupervised.

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