This episode happened Tuesday here in Memphis. Some people definitely are not fit to be parents.
Careless Mistake" says Mother of Twins Left in Hot Car
8/2/2006
MEMPHIS,TN-Memphis police have now charged Carlesia Johnson with two counts of reckless endangerment for leaving her children inside a car in the sweltering heat. It's a misdeamnor and some say only slap on the wrist for a crime that could have ended in a fatality. However, Johnson tells News Channel 3 in a telephone interview, it's a testament to the kind of mother she really is.
We went to Johnson's Southeast Memphis apartment to talk to her. We were told she was home but no one came to the door. It looked like we would not hear from her until she answered our telephone call. When asked why she left them, she said, "I'm a pretty good mother I know that. I just made a careless mistake."
Johnson told us she just moved to the area and was unfamiliar with the way the Department of Human Services worked. She said, "I intended to go in there and pass some stuff and leave back out."
It didn't happen that way. She signed in at the office at 10:14 a.m. at 10:49 a.m. The children were found by a passerbyer crying and drowning in sweat. Johnson told us she checked on them during that time. She told me, "when I arrived there I came back out and cranked the car up and sat in the car with the children. Did you know that? You didn't know that did you. I feel like you all just hear the bad part. Just like when I went yesterday and they gave me my children back because they realize what kind of person I am."
The Department of Children's Services says they returned the children to the mother because that's the best place for them but case workers are monitoring their care. Spokesperson, Rob Johnson said, "On one hand you always have to make sure that safety of a child comes first. On the other hand you have to balance that with the potential trauma it would take to take a child in particular a very young child into state custody."
DCS says they are making sure the family has the potential to care for the children. Something Carlesia Johnson says she can do. She tells us she graduated from high school with honors, has a college degree and is a licensed paramedic.
Here is a continuation of the above story!
Police Say Charges To Come For Twin Infants' Mother
Aug 1, 2006 08:50 PM CDT
Memphis -- "I don't want to talk about nothing." The father of the 5-month old twin infants left sitting inside a hot Buick is just about as upset as anyone. Investigators say, the twins mother left them in their carseats covered in blankets, pacifier on the roof of the car, with just one window cracked about an inch.
Police say she spent more than 30 minutes inside the Public Assistance Center on Jackson Avenue. Kristopher Askew just happened to hear the children crying as he pulled in the parking lot. "The babies was sweating real bad, and the blanket was laying over the little boy head," Askew says.
Askew reached through the window, unlocked the doors and was able to get the children out. The infants were treated at LeBohner Hospital for dyhydration. Investigators say, if it hadn't been for the good samaritan, things could have been much worse, especially with temperatures soaring to 98 degrees Tuesday. "It's just unfathomable. It's totally preventable. It represents neglect on behalf of parents," Safe Kids Coalition Director Susan Helms says. Investigators say they're preparing a case to present to the grand jury. They say mom will likely be charged with reckless neglect endangerment charges.
Replies
58
SoWal Insider
OMG!!! 
She sounds like a peach, wonder how she'd feel if someone left her in a locked car.
She sounds like a peach, wonder how she'd feel if someone left her in a locked car.
brain
Graduate high school with honors, had a college degree and is a paramedic. Hmmmmm...sounds to me like she has everything going for her to be a good and ethical person, I wonder what went wrong? 
SoWal InsiderAuthor
Sounds like a really good mother to me! I know exactly where this place is as it is only about 3 or 4 miles from my house. But to do something like that in front of a public assistance office! Much less anywhere else. She needed to be charged. I wouldn't let her have them back. They are better off with someone else. It is a good thing someone heard them crying and got them out. I hope they arrested her there and then. What an idiot!
SoWal Insider
Gee, do you think maybe the reason for the blanket was to try to keep them hidden from view???? I hope they take them away again. These kids are in for a hard life.
little sugar
Gee, do you think maybe the reason for the blanket was to try to keep them hidden from view???? I hope they take them away again. These kids are in for a hard life.
Amen to that.......maybe someone needs to leave her in a hot car for a while :clap_1:
percy
I wouldn't let her have them back. They are better off with someone else. It is a good thing someone heard them crying and got them out.I'm just glad the law doesn't work this way--lots of parents have made stupid, even dangerous, mistakes that wouldn't have been made right by immediately placing the children with someone else. I'm also glad it's not up to me to decide who's a "fit" parent.
Beach Fanatic
^5 Pea
SoWal InsiderAuthor
I'm just glad the law doesn't work this way--lots of parents have made stupid, even dangerous, mistakes that wouldn't have been made right by placing the children with someone else. I'm also glad it's not up to me to decide who's a "fit" parent.
Well, there definitely is some irresponsibility on her part! I see so much stuff with children that is totally unacceptable it's unreal. Cannot stand to go in a grocery store or Walmart and see these small black children crying and tired and their mother is yelling out at the top of her lungs at them in the checkout and reaches out and slaps them really hard. Right in front of everyone. Makes me mad as heck!
Darlene is my middle name, not my nickname
Well, there definitely is some irresponsibility on her part! I see so much stuff with children that is totally unacceptable it's unreal. Cannot stand to go in a grocery store or Walmart and see these small black children crying and tired and their mother is yelling out at the top of her lungs at them in the checkout and reaches out and slaps them really hard. Right in front of everyone. Makes me mad as heck!
OMG..you did not go there!!!!! There are no words for my displeasure in this post. FYI LadyB, I have seen white parents do this !!!!!
Beach Fanatic
This just makes me sick. How can people, esp. parents, be so cruel? 
I just got through reading another story earlier today that made me want to barf. I just wish they'd take these parents and do the same thing to them so they know what it feels like!
ST PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) -- A woman and her roommate were charged with starving the woman's 9-year-old daughter, who weighed just 42 pounds when she was found, authorities said.
The child also was locked up all day and was forced to wear a filthy diaper, police said.
Melissa Samoraj, 27, and Raymond LaFountain, 31, were arrested Wednesday and charged with aggravated child abuse.
The girl was so emaciated that her spine and ribcage were showing when state child welfare officials took her June 30, police said.
The girl also had her hands bound behind her, was locked in a bedroom all day and wore a diaper that went unchanged for hours, officials said. She told police it was punishment for bad behavior.
"It's a very disturbing case," police Detective Joe DeLuca said. "You see very few like this."
The girl now lives with her grandparents and has gained about 25 pounds in a month.
"She's doing well now," DeLuca said.
LaFountain's mother reported the girl's appearance after visiting the home, DeLuca said. It's not clear how long the alleged abuse had been going on, police said.
Samoraj and LaFountain were in a Pinellas County jail Thursday, each held on a $50,000 bond. DeLuca said they did not address the allegations when they were arrested Wednesday, and jail records did not indicate if they had lawyers.
LaFountain was originally described by police as Samoraj's live-in boyfriend, but the gender classification at the jail was changed from male to female following a routine strip search, Pinellas sheriff's spokesman Mac McMullen said. http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/03/starved.girl.ap/index.html
I just got through reading another story earlier today that made me want to barf. I just wish they'd take these parents and do the same thing to them so they know what it feels like!ST PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) -- A woman and her roommate were charged with starving the woman's 9-year-old daughter, who weighed just 42 pounds when she was found, authorities said.
The child also was locked up all day and was forced to wear a filthy diaper, police said.
Melissa Samoraj, 27, and Raymond LaFountain, 31, were arrested Wednesday and charged with aggravated child abuse.
The girl was so emaciated that her spine and ribcage were showing when state child welfare officials took her June 30, police said.
The girl also had her hands bound behind her, was locked in a bedroom all day and wore a diaper that went unchanged for hours, officials said. She told police it was punishment for bad behavior.
"It's a very disturbing case," police Detective Joe DeLuca said. "You see very few like this."
The girl now lives with her grandparents and has gained about 25 pounds in a month.
"She's doing well now," DeLuca said.
LaFountain's mother reported the girl's appearance after visiting the home, DeLuca said. It's not clear how long the alleged abuse had been going on, police said.
Samoraj and LaFountain were in a Pinellas County jail Thursday, each held on a $50,000 bond. DeLuca said they did not address the allegations when they were arrested Wednesday, and jail records did not indicate if they had lawyers.
LaFountain was originally described by police as Samoraj's live-in boyfriend, but the gender classification at the jail was changed from male to female following a routine strip search, Pinellas sheriff's spokesman Mac McMullen said. http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/03/starved.girl.ap/index.html
Beach Fanatic
This just makes me sick. How can people, esp. parents, be so cruel?
ST PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) -- A woman and her roommate were charged with starving the woman's 9-year-old daughter, who weighed just 42 pounds when she was found, authorities said.
The child also was locked up all day and was forced to wear a filthy diaper, police said.
Melissa Samoraj, 27, and Raymond LaFountain, 31, were arrested Wednesday and charged with aggravated child abuse.
The girl was so emaciated that her spine and ribcage were showing when state child welfare officials took her June 30, police said.
The girl also had her hands bound behind her, was locked in a bedroom all day and wore a diaper that went unchanged for hours, officials said. She told police it was punishment for bad behavior.
"It's a very disturbing case," police Detective Joe DeLuca said. "You see very few like this."
The girl now lives with her grandparents and has gained about 25 pounds in a month.
"She's doing well now," DeLuca said.
LaFountain's mother reported the girl's appearance after visiting the home, DeLuca said. It's not clear how long the alleged abuse had been going on, police said.
Samoraj and LaFountain were in a Pinellas County jail Thursday, each held on a $50,000 bond. DeLuca said they did not address the allegations when they were arrested Wednesday, and jail records did not indicate if they had lawyers.
LaFountain was originally described by police as Samoraj's live-in boyfriend, but the gender classification at the jail was changed from male to female following a routine strip search, Pinellas sheriff's spokesman Mac McMullen said. http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/03/starved.girl.ap/index.html
I'm sorry, I know this is a horrific story - I hope these two rot in jail, but I can't help but giggle at the "gender classification change"
SoWal Insider
We just had this very same story repeated on our local news here. Lady left her 2 children in a car this a.m. in a town just northeast of Atlanta. I think Bsmart can vouch that this happens quite often here in the Metro Atl. area. Many instances have ended in great tragedy. Interesting that it has involved people of all walks of life. Rich, poor, educated, less educated. Race is not even a factor.
I personally, do not understand why anyone would ever leave a small child in a locked car anywhere, anytime! There's just too much at stake to take the risk.
I personally, do not understand why anyone would ever leave a small child in a locked car anywhere, anytime! There's just too much at stake to take the risk.
Beach Fanatic
OMG..you did not go there!!!!! There are no words for my displeasure in this post. FYI LadyB, I have seen white parents do this !!!!!
I agree, kd. The lady in the St. Petersburg case was white. Interestingly enough though...it appears that at first the police classified her "partner" as a male. Turns out a strip search caused them to reclassify "he" as a "she"!
Edited
SoWal Expert
I'm a bit confused. How did a post about child neglect turn into a racist comment? Why did it matter that the mother at Walmart was black?
Children suffer neglect at the hands of adults- adults OF EVERY RACE AND ETHNICITY AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION. Thankfully most people on this board are not bigots.
Maybe Kurt will lock this thread before more stupid racist comments are posted.
^5 to all who caught this one and called it.
Children suffer neglect at the hands of adults- adults OF EVERY RACE AND ETHNICITY AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION. Thankfully most people on this board are not bigots.
Maybe Kurt will lock this thread before more stupid racist comments are posted.
^5 to all who caught this one and called it.
Beach Fanatic
I'm a bit confused. How did a post about child neglect turn into a racist comment? Why did it matter that the mother at Walmart was black?
Children suffer neglect at the hands of adults- adults OF EVERY RACE AND ETHNICITY AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION. Thankfully most people on this board are not bigots.
Maybe Kurt will lock this thread before more stupid racist comments are posted.
^5 to all who caught this one and called it.
I agree. I hate to see negative topics of ANY kind turn into a matter of race/ethnicity/sexual orientation Jerks come in all shapes, sizes, colors, etc.
SoWal InsiderAuthor
I'm a bit confused. How did a post about child neglect turn into a racist comment? Why did it matter that the mother at Walmart was black?
Children suffer neglect at the hands of adults- adults OF EVERY RACE AND ETHNICITY AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION. Thankfully most people on this board are not bigots.
Maybe Kurt will lock this thread before more stupid racist comments are posted.
^5 to all who caught this one and called it.
Jerks come in all shapes, sizes, colors, etc.[/QUOTE]
Don't believe I made a racist comment here. When a city is 61% one ethnicity, 34% another, and 5% mixed, which is our case here, then most of what is seen here like that involves the higher percentage of course. I have yet to see a white child here slapped across the back of the head or face because of crying and being tired or hungry and being called a f*ing bastard. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but I have never seen it. On occasion I have seen one's leg popped for misbehaving, which is as it should be. But when a child is little and is out late past what I consider their bedtime, it's not acceptable. They could go do their shopping earlier and could leave that little child at home with someone instead of dragging them out when it is naptime or bedtime. And anyway, this all has to do with different types of neglect and abuse, because leaving your child locked up in a car is both neglect and abuse also, and a small child being slapped across the head or face and called the above mentioned name is neglect also, and abuse, regardless of who they are.
SoWal Expert
Don't believe I made a racist comment here. When a city is 61% one ethnicity, 34% white, and 5% Mexican, which is our case here, then most of what is seen here involves that. I have yet to see a white child here slapped across the back of the head or face because of crying and being tired or hungry and being called a f*ing bastard. It might happen here, but not as much I can assure you, but I have never seen it. On occasion I have seen one's leg popped for misbehaving, which is as it should be. But when a child is little and is out late past what I consider their bedtime, it's not acceptable. They could go do their shopping earlier and could leave that little child at home with someone instead of dragging them out when it is naptime or bedtime. And anyway, this all has to do with different types of neglect and abuse, because leaving your child locked up in a car is both neglect and abuse also, and a small child being slapped across the head or face is neglect also, and abuse, regardless of who they are!
Even if your city is 99% African American, what is the reason for mentioning race? THERE ISN"T ONE. The point of the story is child neglect, which is sad in itself, and made even sadder by people like you who blame this neglect as a characteristic of a specific race of people.
If you throw the Hispanics in with the African Americans, you can start throwing dirt at a full 66% of your city's population.
Beach Fanatic
Beach Fanatic
Convict me now because I often have my kids out "past" their bedtime. Can't be helped, I work full time, sometimes after work and football practice and swimming lessons, that's the only time I have left to go to the grocery store to get them milk and bread. Yes, they are tired and crabby and sometimes I yell at them, but hey, I'm tired to. Lead me to the jail.
Until you can walk in someone else's shoes, I would be very careful about assuming a sutiuation.
Sorry for the typos. My boss is coming and I'm trying to type fast.
Until you can walk in someone else's shoes, I would be very careful about assuming a sutiuation.
Sorry for the typos. My boss is coming and I'm trying to type fast.
SoWal Insider
Convict me now because I often have my kids out "past" their bedtime. Can't be helped, I work full time, sometimes after work and football practice and swimming lessons, that's the only time I have left to go to the grocery store to get them milk and bread. Yes, they are tired and crabby and sometimes I yell at them, but hey, I'm tired to. Lead me to the jail.
Until you can walk in someone else's shoes, I would be very careful about assuming a sutiuation.
Sorry for the typos. My boss is coming and I'm trying to type fast.
If we were all convicted for that. I'd be doing 20 to life!
I took my daughter all the way to work with me one day because I forgot to drop her off at the babysitters house!!! :shock: I didn' t leave her in the car though!Beach Fanatic
BWHA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!! Way to run some well needed interference GTTBM!!!!!!!!! OMG still laughing!!!!!
If we were all convicted for that. I'd be doing 20 to life!
Beach Fanatic
If we were all convicted for that. I'd be doing 20 to life!
I've done that too. I have a different sitter on Fridays. She lives on my way to work, my daughter was asleep, I guess I was too because I just passed the sitters exit up and kept on driving all the way to work!!Boy, did I feel like a dumbass when I got there!
SoWal Expert
I almost left kate on the counter at the Post office. Thank God I was only a few steps away when my friend said "Uh, Jen, THE BABY????" Unfortunately the memory doesn't get any better.
Beach Fanatic
:rofl: Okay some one start a new thread:
I ALMOST LEFT MY SON/DAUGHTER AT THE _______________
BEFORE ________________ TOLD ME/I DROVE OFF .......
Really, I admire all of you parents out there. It truly is one of lifes most difficult/rewarding jobs.
Beach Fanatic
If we were all convicted for that. I'd be doing 20 to life!
That very situation happened here last summer, but the dad DID forget about the baby and DID leave her in the car! Apparently the baby was sleeping and the dad parked his car and went up to his office. Someone called the police and they got the baby out. I can't remember all the details, but thankfully someone noticed before something really bad happened. :shock:
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