Arkansas judge is charged in death of son left in hot car
Source: Associated Press
Arkansas judge is charged in death of son left in hot car
Claudia Lauer, Associated Press
Updated 3:35 pm, Thursday, February 11, 2016
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) An Arkansas judge was arrested Thursday on a complaint of negligent homicide after the death of his son who was left in the back seat of a hot car last summer.
An arrest warrant filed in Garland County says Circuit Court Judge Wade Naramore faces the misdemeanor charge for negligently causing the death of his 18-month-old son, Thomas Naramore. Special Prosecutor Scott Ellington said in a news release that Naramore surrendered at the Garland County Detention Center, where he was booked and released on $5,000 bond Thursday morning.
Naramore's attorney, Patrick Benca, didn't immediately return a phone call for comment.
Thomas Naramore died July 24 after being left in a hot car for about five hours, according to the warrant.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Arkansas-judge-is-charged-in-death-of-son-left-in-6823849.php
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jwirr
(39,215 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,321 posts)and just drove to work, and never noticed him when he got out - or back in, it seems (by which time he may have been in and out of consciousness, I guess). Eventually, a noise alerted him.
Demonaut
(8,918 posts)jonno99
(2,620 posts)that I would want to continue living...
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)I am so glad I am not responsible for children, doing something like that would break me. Everytime I read about a non-deliberate case, my heart goes out to the family. Then there are those who do it knowing wht they are doing, ignoring the others.
alcina
(602 posts)and no reason to believe it wasn't, I should think living with the fact that you killed your own child would be punishment enough. I don't see what could possibly be gained from prosecuting him.
Jerry442
(1,265 posts)...at some point a person's actions start to look less like simple bad judgement and more like depraved indifference to human life -- or worse.
ohnoyoudidnt
(1,858 posts)Sometimes it is a tragic mistake my an overworked, preoccupied and/or absentminded person. I don't see what good it does to throw that person in prison. There may be some people who do it intentionally, so of course everyone can't be given a pass as a matter of course. Maybe they don't want it to appear the judge is being given special treatment. I expect the state and his lawyers will do their jobs and it might end up in the hands of a jury.
Jerry442
(1,265 posts)secondwind
(16,903 posts)LisaL
(44,973 posts)Like if the kid wasn't his son, would killing the kid still be punishment enough?
alcina
(602 posts)If there was reason in this case to think it wasn't an accident -- say, for example, he'd recently taken out life insurance on his infant son, or the child had a debilitating illness that was going to cause a lifetime of agony and expense and the parents had complained about it -- then I'd agree there's cause to move toward prosecution. There's definitely cause for investigation. But if it's truly an accident? I don't see what's to be gained from prosecuting the "killer."
And what is the point of prosecution anyway? To bring "justice"? To punish? To prevent the perpetrator from committing the same crime again? As a warning to others that this behaviour will not be tolerated in our society? The only one of these that I can see applying in this case -- and similar cases that have occurred in the past -- is punishment. And as I said, I think there's enough of that already.
But to pre-empt the next question in your line of thought: What if it was someone else's child and he didn't die, but rather was so badly harmed that a lifetime of care was required. Again, I don't see a reason to prosecute at a criminal level, but I think financial responsibility would need to be assigned in that case.
And finally, before you say (or anyone else says), "You've obviously never lost a child," let me add: Yes, I have. And under circumstances that were not at all natural. Forgiveness was the only way I could move on.
Hoppy
(3,595 posts)jonno99
(2,620 posts)LisaL
(44,973 posts)Apparently that's only a misdemeanor. Seems like homicide shouldn't be a misdemeanor.
mahina
(17,668 posts)I used to wake up from a deep sleep to check my son when he was little.
Can not imagine 5 hours passing without checking on a baby. Can't imagine one hour passing.
And...misdemeanor??????
Five hours? Misdemeanor?
I can't believe it.
Demonaut
(8,918 posts)do you call the day care center every hour..every two hours to see if your kid is ok?
mahina
(17,668 posts)If he were at day care, he's being looked after. I never once called to see if he was ok.
What is your point?
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)He forgot to drop off the child at day-care. The exact condition you just excused yourself from after being outraged that 5 hours passed.
It's a tragic situation, but unless you have proof that he intended to it, what else can he be charged with? One needs a license to fish, but any idiot can have a child.
CBHagman
(16,986 posts)There have been hundreds of such cases and actually quite a lot written on how it is possible that a child could be mistakenly left in a hot car. A practice meant to protect a child, namely placement in a secured seat in the back of the car, puts him/her in danger when a distracted parent, sibling, or other caregiver has no visual cue to unstrap the baby on leaving the car.
[url]http://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/hot-cars-and-child-death-prevention?page=2[/url]
"The memory is faced with a challenge when it needs to remember something that you dont do every day, such as take your child to school, McDaniel says. For instance, maybe Mom usually does that, but for some reason, Dad takes the task for the day, he says.
If the child has fallen asleep in their car seat, which is usually behind the drivers seat, there is no visual information to remind you that there is a kid to drop off and if you have not done it day in and day out, you need a cue, McDaniel says. These are not bad parents, but people who dont have a good understanding of their memory system."
[url]http://www.parents.com/baby/safety/car/danger-of-hot-car-for-children/[/url]
This is a relatively new problem. Prior to the early 1990s, children were routinely placed in the front seat, where it was obvious that they were in the car. In fact, from 1990 to 1992 there were only 11 known deaths of children from heatstroke after being left in a car. After that, car seats were moved to the back. This is when airbags became common and kids riding in the front seat were being killed by them -- 63 in 1995 alone. Not a single child has died due to an airbag since 2003, but at least 110 kids died of heatstroke from 2011 to 2013 -- a tenfold increase over the prior decade. So although kids are safer in cars in one way, they are more at risk in another.
But that isn't the only factor in heatstroke deaths, and safety experts stress that the backseat remains the safest place for children. Another major contributor, one that's more difficult to comprehend, relates to the brain. "These are not negligent parents who have forgotten their kids," says David Diamond, Ph.D., a neuroscientist in the psychology department at the University of South Florida, in Tampa, who has reviewed the details of many hot-car deaths and has spent time with dozens of parents who unintentionally left their child in the car.
Understanding what they did, he says, requires grasping how two very different parts of the brain work. There are the basal ganglia -- the "background system" that controls our habits. "It allows us to do things without thinking about them," Dr. Diamond says. When you're training in sports, for example, you repeat an action over and over to fine-tune your skills. Once it's time to compete, the action is automatic. "Your basal ganglia take over and you don't have to think about how to bounce or shoot the ball."
Then there are the parts of the brain that control new information: the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. The basal ganglia and prefrontal cortex essentially compete with each other, Dr. Diamond says. When you change up your routine and do something different, then the new details have to be processed by the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex to override the basal ganglia's strong desire to perform actions out of habit.