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07-29-2014 03:03 PM
A Florida mother says she is bewildered after she was arrested and charged with child neglect for letting her son walk to a nearby park alone.
“I’m totally dumbfounded by this whole situation,” Port St. Lucie resident Nicole Gainey told WPTV.
Gainey thought nothing of letting Dominic, her 7-year-old son, walk to Sportsman’s Park on Saturday.
The park is about half a mile from Gainey’s home and it takes Dominic between 10 to 15 minutes to make the jaunt.
“Honestly didn’t think I was doing anything wrong,” Gainey said. “I was letting him go play.”
Dominic passed a public pool on his way to the park. A person there asked him where his parents were.
“They asked me a couple questions and I got scared so I ran off to the park and they called the cops,” Dominic told WPTV.
While playing at the park, police officers pulled up and asked Dominic where his mother lives.
Officers took the boy home where police arrested Gainey and charged her with felony child neglect. She told WPTV that she paid a $4,000 bond to get out of jail.
“He just basically kept going over that there’s pedophiles and this and that and basically the park wasn’t safe and he shouldn’t be there alone,” Gainey said.
07-29-2014 03:14 PM
07-29-2014 03:16 PM
A felony? That seems a little extreme.
07-29-2014 03:16 PM
Are we more paranoid or are we raising more pedophiles?
07-29-2014 03:17 PM
I don't think it's wise to let a 7 year old walk to the park alone though.
07-29-2014 03:19 PM
I let my second grade sons walk to school.
07-29-2014 03:22 PM
People are so paranoid.
07-29-2014 03:23 PM
This arrest was wrong on so many levels. She should get her money back and an apology from the PD.
07-29-2014 03:24 PM
Arresting her was a ridiculous waste of the police department's time and energy. If it were my child I would not let a 7 year old walk that far and play alone in the park but I don't think its cause for an arrest, a warning of the dangers that can happen to a little 7 year old by his or herself would have been sufficient here.
07-29-2014 03:25 PM
I think felony arrest is extreme but I do think 7 is too young to let a child walk that far alone. I also agree that Americans are more paranoid, in Australia this would be considered completely normal.
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