Posted on 03/12/2008 10:51:51 AM PDT by LibWhacker
CHICAGO (AP) — 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.
Even as she buckled 2-year-old Phoebe into the car, the girl was asleep. When Coyne arrived at the store, she found a spot to park in a loading zone, right behind someone tying a Christmas tree onto a car.
"It's sleeting out, it's not pleasant, I don't want to disturb her, wake her up," Coyne said this week. "It was safer to leave her in the safety and warmth of an alarmed car than take her."
So Coyne switched on the emergency flashers, locked the car, activated the alarm and walked the other children to the bell ringer.
She snapped a few pictures of the girls donating money and headed back to the car. But a community service officer blocked her way.
"She was on a tirade, she was yelling at me," Coyne said. The officer, Coyne said, didn't want to hear about how close Coyne was, how she never set foot inside the store and was just there to let the kids donate money, or how she could always see her car.
Coyne telephoned her husband, Tim Janecyk, who advised her not to say anything else to police until he arrived. So Coyne declined to talk further, refusing even to tell police her child's name.
When Janecyk pulled up, his wife already was handcuffed, sitting in a patrol car.
Crestwood Police Chief Timothy Sulikowski declined to comment about the case. But he did not dispute the contention that Coyne parked nearby or was away from her car for just a few minutes.
He did, however, suggest Coyne put her child at risk.
"A minute or two, that's when things can happen," he said.
Talk about the case has intensified, particularly online, where bloggers are weighing in on various message boards.
Many have harsh words for the police department, calling the arrest of a mother who left her child in a locked car for a few minutes an abuse of authority.
Yet statistics show thousands of children are injured and dozens die every year after being left unattended near or inside vehicles.
"I am talking tens of thousands of people who leave their kids in the car for any period of time all around America," said Janette Fennell, founder and president of Kansas-based Kids and Cars. "People don't appreciate the dangers of leaving a child alone in the car."
Coyne's attorney, Michelle Forbes, argued that Coyne did not break the law any more than a mother who parks in front of a school in a rainstorm and leaves an infant in the car as she runs a few feet to pick up another child.
"As long as the car is not out of her sight, then the child is not unattended," she said.
Coyne and her husband believe she is unfairly being lumped in with parents who put their children's lives at risk.
"If I were going on a shopping spree then, yes, I would deserve arrest," Coyne said. "I was standing right there. I never went into the store.
"I'm a great parent."
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So what the rules are saying is that if you let yourself get pushed around, you get the same punishment as kicking the other guys butt.
I’m not sure this was the intent of zero tolerance.
Treffly Coyne is not the kind of mother who will teach her children to back down when she knows they have been wronged. “It was after I talked to the kids when I got their mom out of jail that I knew where this was going” Tim Janecyk said “The first thing those kids said to me was ‘dad, what the police did to mom was wrong’ I knew they needed to see us fight this.”
If that and what else has been posted is at all true, Crestwood is toast.
"obstructing a peace officer" was thrown in because there is NO WAY that child endangerment will be proven. The article does not mention why she was given this charge.
I'm from the government and I'm here to help. What idiots!
I wonder what the real story is
I imagine that she'll soon be going on that shopping spree. On the taxpayer's dime.
But they weren't.
"The police abandoned my other daughters at the Wal-Mart," said Janecyk, who eventually found them seated on a bench in the Wal-Mart. "I asked them why they didn't ask for help, but they said the police scared them."
I'd be suing the crap outta the cops and the city for child endangerment.
Especially these fat stupid women who have no business being cops in the first place. NYC is crawling with these bitches.
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My uncle spent the last few days of his life contesting a huge fine from the “garbage police” in NYC ,, he was confined to the house as he needed Oxygen 24*7 .. someone put a loose hubcap from the street in his garbage can... being aluminum it should have been in the recycle bin... My uncle was a NYC detective for 30 years and he dies fighting the system over garbage! WHAT A COUNTRY!
“community service officer” - WTF is that?
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In Florida at least a “community service officer” is the cop assigned to visiting juvenile delinquents at their homes ,, very similar to a parole officer..
me too
I agree with what you posted 100%....the problem with our current crop of lib dems is old people...not because they are old, but the damn kennedy democrats that “ have always been democrats, and always will be”...ask some of these senile morons if they support abortion on demand, and they will say no....ask them if they support higher taxes, and they will say no....tell them their democrat candidate supports both, and ask them why they vote democrat, and the answer will be “i have voted democrat all my life, and i always will”.......idiots who complain but do not have the common sense to vote for true change.
Apparently he only "suggested" things instead of "commenting on" things.
Well.. He could have been commenting on his own time
Yep, thats what I thought too. Now there are THREE kids at risk. They hand out titles of authority like candy it seems.
In every-day English, “Rent-a-cop”.
so child in car, parent out of car = unattended.
zero tolerance.
so next time i get gas i should take my kids out of the car as well?
The problem today is that nobody wants to take the required responsibility. Your kid falls off his bicycle and breaks his arm. Who is responsible? Schwinn, for building an inherently unstable vehicle for the child to ride!!!!
The government is going too far in trying to protect the sheeple. Look at the cost of a car today. How much of that cost is because of government-required safety devices? The best safety device in a car is a good, sensible, responsible driver who also maintains his vehicle. But wait!!!! Nobody wants to be responsible!!!
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