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Can you get 15 years for stupidity?

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Mom charged with letting kids get sunburned
'There was no sunscreen or nothing on these children'

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (AP) --A woman was arrested on felony charges for allegedly letting her three children get so severely sunburned that they looked like they "were dipped in red paint."

Eve Hibbits was arrested a week ago on three counts of child endangerment, said Sheriff Fred Abdalla.

She remained in jail Tuesday in lieu of $15,000 bail, and a preliminary hearing is set for Wednesday.

Abdalla said a deputy noticed her 2-year-old daughter and 10-month-old twin boys had severely sunburned faces at the Jefferson County Fair.

"She pushed her kids around the fairground all day last Tuesday, and it looked like those kids' faces were dipped in red paint," he said. "There was no sunscreen or nothing on these children."

The children had second-degree sunburns and were treated with cold compresses, said Trinity Medical Center West spokesman Keith Murdock.

Hibbits, 31, could face 15 years in jail if convicted of all three counts.

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.

eaction83 · Guest Joined: 14 Jun 2002 Posts: 130 Location: Fremont, CA

Interesting. Remember that idiot a couple months ago, who let a transient he'd only known a few days sleep in his home in St. Louis while his six-year-old daughter was under his care, only to have the transient abduct and kill her the next morning? I thought that guy should have been arrested on felony child endangerment charges and maybe even accessory to murder, but he wasn't. If you aren't going to charge him with anything, then how can you justify charging a mother for something as minor as not using sunscreen? It was a stupid thing for her to do, granted, but it hardly seems criminal.

Gaucho81 · Guest Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 147 Location: Ventura, CA

I heard that story on the radio while driving to work yesterday. :shock:

If this case holds, then you have to ask, "Where do you draw the line?"
How sunburned does one have to become?

It was a very, very stupid :oops: thing to do, but it doesn't warrant this reaction in my opinion.

If they go that far, then why not arrest all those people at the fair that noticed, but didn't confront the woman or supply her with some suntan lotion for her children.

This sounds like an item for one of Stossel's (sp?) "Give me a break" segments.