See that good looking dude on the left? He's got FAR BETTER THINGS to do than conduct Freepathons! Come on, let's get this thing over with.
Posted on 07/13/2003 12:28:15 PM PDT by chance33_98
Leaving baby in truck "a terrible mistake"
07/12/2003
By L. Anne Newell / Arizona Daily Star
TUCSON -- A Tucson husband and wife who left their 4-month-old son in their truck for at least an hour while they lunched are loving parents who made a mistake, their lawyer said Friday.
"What happened here was a terrible mistake that, believe it or not, can happen," Stephen M. Weiss said. "As far as we're concerned, there was no criminal conduct."
But officials - including Oro Valley police who charged Daniel Popson, 35, and Suzanne Popson, 28, with felony counts of child abuse - disagree.
"I think they're very fortunate it didn't turn out to be a fatal incident," said Becky Mendez, a spokeswoman for the Oro Valley Police Department.
Officials also said the incident was especially worrisome coming so soon after another Tucson woman left her child in a hot car so long that she died.
"We are seeing tragedies we don't have to see," said Mary Judge Ryan, chief deputy Pima County attorney. "There is no excuse for people ignoring their parental duties and forgetting their children. It's child abuse."
The Popsons, of the 2000 block of East Quiet Canyon Drive, were booked into the Pima County jail and released. Each could face two to nearly nine years in prison.
Weiss gave this account of the incident:
The Popsons - who own Popson Homes Inc., a custom building company that has put up a handful of high-end homes in the past few years - went to an Oro Valley restaurant at noon Tuesday to have lunch with their business manager.
After about an hour, as they received the bill, Suzanne Popson realized they'd left their son in his car seat in the back seat of the truck. The temperature climbed from 99 degrees at noon to 102 degrees at 1 p.m.
She jumped up and ran out. Her husband followed as he realized what had happened. The business manager, who holds a position in the couple's church, followed and soon ran back asking for water and wet towels.
Meanwhile, Suzanne Popson began breast-feeding the boy to give him fluids and her husband turned on the air-conditioning.
The three left quickly to take the boy to an emergency room but changed direction when they realized they were closer to the boy's pediatrician's office.
When they took the boy there, Weiss continued, they learned he hadn't suffered any permanent damage. Wanting to be sure, Suzanne Popson insisted they take the child to a lab, where she asked for tests to confirm the boy's condition.
None of the three ever called police, but a restaurant employee at Risky Business, at North Oracle Road and First Avenue, did - after piecing together the events behind the frantic scene.
"I'm not here to get anybody in trouble, but at the same time, I think it's up to all of us in the world as adults to watch after children," restaurant owner Jon Alubowicz said. "I'm thankful the child is OK and made it through what he did."
He said the Popsons' lunch lasted about an hour and 20 minutes.
After the group left he decided he had to call the police, he said, thinking about the June 29 incident that claimed the life of Dalina Gutierrez's 6-month-old daughter, Alejandra.
Tucson police said Gutierrez, 21, picked up two of her three children from a relative's home about 5 a.m. She took the older child inside but left Alejandra in the car and fell asleep for at least five hours. When Gutierrez awoke about 10:30 a.m., she realized Alejandra was still in the car. The baby had no pulse when medics arrived and was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Gutierrez remained jailed Friday on $1 million bond.
The incident was the first this year in Arizona in which a child has died from being left inside a vehicle. At the time, it was the 10th such incident in the nation this year. But the days since then have been especially deadly, said Janette Fennell, president and founder Kids and Cars, a nonprofit child safety group based in San Francisco.
Sixteen deaths have been recorded now, she said.
"Everybody thinks this isn't going to happen to them," Fennell said. "But this is unfortunately the time of year that the lion's share of these incidents happen. . . . You think that finally people are going to get the message and never leave their kids alone in the car, but it continues to happen."
In 2002, 30 children died in the United States after being left alone in cars, she said, down from 34 deaths the year before. In Arizona, at least eight children have died since 1994.
It's amazing the Popsons' son won't be added to that list, said Dr. Kevin Reilly, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Arizona who also works in the emergency department at University Medical Center.
"I think we're very lucky we didn't have a heat-related death," he said. "I think there was some divine intervention."
According to a study, he said, a car on a 93-degree day will reach 125 degrees within 20 minutes. Within 40 minutes, it reaches 140 degrees.
"I think that our job as health- care professionals is to point out to people that it's an extremely dangerous practice to leave your children in the car, even if you think it's only going to be for a couple of minutes," he said.
That's true even on cool days, he and Fennell said, because kids can knock the car in gear and roll into the street - or run over other children. Someone can steal the car, taking the kids, too.
Weiss addressed his clients' fitness as parents by pointing to how quickly Child Protective Services returned the boy and his two older siblings to the couple. They were taken Tuesday afternoon and returned about 24 hours later.
Fennell said the relatively quick return wasn't unusual, compared to similar cases.
"Obviously it was a mistake," Weiss said of the incident. "They are regular church-going people . . . and, I guess, above all of that, really loving and responsible parents. I can't even begin to tell you how terrible this is for them."
This was a story in a local paper about a friend of ours who found a baby in a cat and the confrontation she had with the child's mom. It occured July 7th and she emailed me last night with the link. Way to go Danielle!
See that good looking dude on the left? He's got FAR BETTER THINGS to do than conduct Freepathons! Come on, let's get this thing over with.
I remember when I was a kid, my parents left our dog in the car on a hot day. The window was cracked, but when we came back out about a half hour later, the dog was almost passed out. I still remember how frantic my parents were. My mother cradled the dog's head in her lap on the ground outside and my Dad helped the dog drink water. My parents learned a valuable lesson.
I saw 5 seperate reports yesterday while skimming news sources across the states. Several involving deaths.
Jeez. . . shouldn't a 4 month old be the center of a parent's life? How in the world do you just "forget" you have a baby?
*snicker*
But I am getting very tired of these "baby left in car" stories. Child abuse is the least they should be charged with.
Start making it attempted murder or murder and watch in amazement how fast the collective memory of American parents improves.
"I left my baby in the car," is not a mistake - it is child neglect and perhaps abuse (certainly most places during the summer.)
What kind of nitwits believe that rational people would accept that leaving one's own baby in a car for one hour and twenty minutes, is a mistake? On second thought, considering the state of public education today, don't ask.
. . .that is the truth, plain and simple; parental ignorance is no excuse either.
Golly. Must have been painful for the cat. Hope both kitty and baby are well.
The Gilligan man is just fine, thanks for asking. BTW, I never forget about him when he rides in the car.
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