watch here - Mom Arrested For Allowing Child to Walk to Park Alone: Nicole Gainey has been arrested and charged with child neglect after allowing her 7-yr-old son walk to a neighborhhod park in Port St. Lucie, Fl.
A mother has been charged with child neglect after she let her seven-year-old son walk to a nearby park alone.
Nicole Gainey, 34, of Port St. Lucie, Florida was arrested on Saturday after lifeguards saw her son Dominic walking past a pool on the way to the park, which is half a mile from his home.
When they questioned the boy, who has a learning disability, he ran toward the park, where officers picked him up and drove him home. continue...
Gainey said she was shocked when officers turned up on her doorstep and told them that she allows her son to go to the park unsupervised once or twice a week.
She said the park is about 10 minutes away and she always sends him off with a cell phone so that she can contact him or he can get in touch with her in case there's a problem.
'I honestly didn't think I was doing anything wrong. I was letting him go play,' she told WPTV. 'I'm totally dumbfounded by this whole situation.'
Police said in their police report that there were 'numerous sex offenders living in the vicinity' - but Gainey said she felt her son was mature enough to walk to the park alone.
Gainey was arrested on Saturday but was released later that day from the St. Lucie County Jail after posting a $3,750 bond.
'My own bondsman said, "My parents would have been in jail every day"' if the same laws had been enforced, Gainey said.
Attorney John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil liberties group representing Gainey, says his client is a good mother who is scared but ready to fight the charge.
But WPTV said it might not be necessary as an official from the Florida Department of Children and Families told the mother she could 'expect the case to be dropped'.
Gainey said she will no longer let her son go to the park on his own because she is worried about being arrested again.
A mother has been charged with child neglect after she let her seven-year-old son walk to a nearby park alone.
Nicole Gainey, 34, of Port St. Lucie, Florida was arrested on Saturday after lifeguards saw her son Dominic walking past a pool on the way to the park, which is half a mile from his home.
When they questioned the boy, who has a learning disability, he ran toward the park, where officers picked him up and drove him home. continue...
Gainey said she was shocked when officers turned up on her doorstep and told them that she allows her son to go to the park unsupervised once or twice a week.
She said the park is about 10 minutes away and she always sends him off with a cell phone so that she can contact him or he can get in touch with her in case there's a problem.
'I honestly didn't think I was doing anything wrong. I was letting him go play,' she told WPTV. 'I'm totally dumbfounded by this whole situation.'
Police said in their police report that there were 'numerous sex offenders living in the vicinity' - but Gainey said she felt her son was mature enough to walk to the park alone.
Gainey was arrested on Saturday but was released later that day from the St. Lucie County Jail after posting a $3,750 bond.
'My own bondsman said, "My parents would have been in jail every day"' if the same laws had been enforced, Gainey said.
Attorney John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil liberties group representing Gainey, says his client is a good mother who is scared but ready to fight the charge.
But WPTV said it might not be necessary as an official from the Florida Department of Children and Families told the mother she could 'expect the case to be dropped'.
Gainey said she will no longer let her son go to the park on his own because she is worried about being arrested again.
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