Local Mother Won't Be Indicted

On August 25, I wrote about what I think was a sad rush to judgment on the part of some in our community. The object of condemnation was--and remains--a mother, assistant principal of one of the middle schools in our district, who, from all indications, accidentally left her child in the family SUV on a roasting day, August 23. The child died of hyperthermia.

Our Clermont County Prosecuting Attorney, Don White, a hardliner when it comes to crime, has decided not to indict Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby. White explained:

"She knows that her actions are what caused her child to die, or her lack of attentiveness...She'll live with that. And I can't imagine what I could do as a prosecutor to make it any worse for her."

White also pointed to Ohio case law which says that accidents in instances of hyperthermia are not criminal acts.

It's apparently Nesselroad-Slaby's intention to return to work from her paid leave of absence. But many in the community are saying that she should be fired. Many are also condemning White for his decision not to press any charges against her. Some are calling her a murderer.

It's tough for me to imagine that I would ever have become so consumed with my routine as to forget the presence of one of my children in the car. I'll grant that. And yet, many have been the times when, driving to say, the store, I accidentally headed to the church building instead. It's possible, I think, to get so caught up in our daily duties that we forget a sleeping child. Most days of the year, something like that could happen and the consequences wouldn't be so tragic.

Nesselroad-Slaby was evidently thrown off her normal routine on the morning of her daughter's death and concerned about a major presentation she was to give to the Glen Este Middle School faculty that day, forgot about her sleeping daughter.

As I mentioned in that previous post, I've never met Nesselroad-Slaby, but numerous mutual acquaintances have told me what a quality, caring person and what a loving mother she is. She appears to be devastated by this tragedy. Some things are simply accidents. This seems to be one of them.

I do know White. I'm president of the Corporate Board of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Clermont County on which he also serves. While I don't know him well and we may see each other four times a year, at most, he has been a dedicated fund raiser for the organization, precisely because he cares about children and knows that the Boys and Girls Clubs do great work. I'm certain that if Don White thought that there was anything nefarious in Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby's actions, he would prosecute her to the full extent of the law.

Apparently, hyperthermia deaths are increasingly common among America's two-income households. Blogger Icepick, who lives in central Florida, notes the death of one child, the circumstances of which bear resemblance to our local case. In the comments on Icepick's site, Pastor Jeff of Conblogeration mentions that a similar death just happened in the Saint Louis area. Both point to a recent study that demonstrates a dramatic increase in deaths of infants since were made mandatory. The presence of the airbags in the front mean that child safety seats are in the backs of vehicles, where sleeping children can more readily be forgotten by distracted parents.

I'm praying that God will comfort the Slaby family.

A Sad Rush to Judgment

[UPDATE, added August 26, 2007: Something I meant to include in this post originally was a mention of my initial reaction to this tragedy, which was a rush to judgment. But as I read and heard more details, I felt very wrong about that. A good lesson for me in this is to always get my facts straight before forming an opinion.]

In conversations I've had by email, telephone, and face-to-face today, people have described Brenda Nesselroad-Slaby as a great person. A competent, caring educator. An accomplished musician who played piano at her church. A loving mother.

While I've never met Nesselroad-Slaby, those who've told me these things about her are all people for whom I have the deepest respect.

Nonetheless, the assistant principal of Glen Este Middle School here in our community, Nesselroad-Slaby has been villified over the past few days on local message boards, radio call-in shows, and at the proverbial workplace water coolers.

On Thursday, Cecilia Slaby, her two year old daughter, died in the Glen Este parking lot. It happened as she sat, strapped into her car seat in her mother's car. Cecilia may have been there for eight hours, as her mother did her job. With temperatures rising to 100-degrees here in the Cincinnati area that day, it's no wonder that Cecilia died. It's a horrible tragedy!

In fact, "accident" is exactly how our Clermont County prosecutor, Don White, a man who is tough on crime, has described the tragedy. He has indicated that while some charge may be filed, he has little thought that either parent intentionally caused the death of their child. Both Nesselroad-Slaby and her husband have been cooperative with authorities and teachers and school administrators on the scene when Cecilia was found describe a mother who was clearly distraught, hysterical with grief.

Over the past few days, local media reports have taught our community that about thirty such deaths occur in the US every year. Often, they happen in the households of busy two-income families where a sleeping child may be in the car seat of a parent who thinks it's not their "day" to take the little one to child care. Prelimimary indications are that that's what happened with Cecilia.

But some in our community are skeptical, others downright hostile, certain that Cecilia was murdered.

I suppose that, to some extent, the suspicions are understandable. Less than a half-mile from the Glen Este parking lot where Cecilia died, foster child Marcus Feisel lost his life.* Marcus, readers of this blog will remember, was wrapped in duct tape and thrown into a closet by his foster parents and their live-in lover. While the three spent several days in Kentucky at a family reunion, Marcus died. Two of the conspirators took his body and incinerated it, while a third told police and the media that the child had gone missing in a local park. Hundreds of community volunteers joined law enforcement officials in searching for Marcus. When the story of what really happened came out, all of us in the community wanted justice to be served. We also developed an acute sensitivity to the vulnerability of children.

With the memory of Marcus so fresh, particularly for those of us who live in the West Clermont Local School District where these events have happened, some skepticism about the circumstances of Cecilia Slaby's death was bound to surface.

But others refuse to even entertain the idea she was the victim of a terrible accident. "I think the parents did it on purpose," one co-worker told a friend of mine on Friday. I'm told that the West Clermont board offices were flooded with telephone calls from people who have already charged, convicted, and hanged Cecilia's parents.

I suspect that some of these reactions stem from something other than a desire to protect children. Among some people, guilty-until-proven-innocent seems to be the prevailing attitude. Their hearts are cold with sin.

I believe that a relationship with Jesus Christ, based on grace and not legalism, changes the way we think about our lives and the world. Our sin inclines us to violate God's command to not bear false witness which, as explained in Martin Luther's Small Catechism calls us also to "put the most charitable construction" on the actions of our neighbors. Jesus Christ, Who died for sinners--that's the whole human race--helps us to be more charitable and less judgmental.

I highly doubt that Cecilia Slaby was the victim of murder. If her parents had wanted to take the little one's life, they could have hatched a more resourceful plot, one that would draw attention away from themselves. Simply leaving Cecilia in her mother's parked car at her place of work is an unlikely way for two intelligent people wanting to get away with murder to go about it.

It looks like an accident to me and that those who are crucifying Cecilia's parents are not just jumping to conclusions, but assassinating their characters. Cecilia's death makes me sad. So does the rush to judgment some are making.

*Marcus Feisel died five-hundred yards from where I live. Our two children attended Glen Este Middle School, but years before Nesselroad-Slaby began working there.