Official: Mich. mom neglected boy she left in Neb.

[samanthajane13]

2 minutes ago

PONTIAC, Mich. - Prosecutors in the home county of a Michigan woman who abandoned her 13-year-old son at a Nebraska hospital this week said Thursday they are seeking temporary custody of the woman's children.

Prosecutor Deborah Carley said a hearing would be held Thursday afternoon in Oakland County juvenile court on her petition for temporary custody of four children of Terri and Terrance Martin of Southfield.

A fifth sibling, a 16-year-old boy, is a foster child who already had been removed from the home by the Michigan Department of Human Services.

Terri Martin made a roughly 12-hour drive to leave the 13-year-old at an Omaha hospital under Nebraska's unique safe haven law.

All states have laws designed to allow desperate new mothers to leave their newborns in safe hands, but Nebraska's law allows parents to abandon older children and even teenagers at hospitals. The boy was the 18th child and the second from out of state abandoned in Nebraska since the law took effect in July.

Carley called Martin's trip a "symptom" of wider neglect against the child and possibly his four siblings.

She declined to offer details of alleged neglect, but said it was "significant" and should have been dealt with by DHS.

"There were a lot of warning signs here for the DHS — they should have taken some action prior to this," she said. "There were enough things happening that indicated these children were not safe and were not in the best home for them."

DHS spokesman Edward Woods III said the state has worked with the prosecutor's office so it could file the petition. He declined to discuss specifics of the case, but said he's unaware of any incident where the children's safety had been compromised by his department.

Carley did not know if the Martins had a lawyer.

(This version corrects that the county is seeking custody of four children, not five, based on new information from authorities.)


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081016/..._us/safe_haven

[samanthajane13]

Related story from last week-

Iowa teen left at Neb. hospital back with family


By JEAN ORTIZ, Associated Press Writer 30 minutes ago

OMAHA, Neb. - An Iowa teenager who was abandoned at an Omaha hospital under Nebraska's safe-haven law is back home, in part because the grandparents who dropped her off soon changed their minds, a county official said Thursday.

The 14-year-old girl from across the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa, was left at Creighton University Medical Center on Tuesday. She was the 17th child left under a state law that took effect in July but was the first from out of state.

Her abandonment set off concerns that Nebraska's broadly written law could make the state a dumping ground for unwanted children. The law absolves anyone of abandonment charges for leaving a child of any age at a state-licensed hospital. It doesn't, however, overlook other possible charges, including if a child had been neglected or abused.

Brenda Beadle, a chief deputy in the Douglas County attorney's office in Nebraska, said a child protection case would not be filed in the 14-year-old's abandonment because it didn't seem appropriate.

Beadle said she believed the girl was adopted by her grandparents. She declined to discuss the circumstances in which the girl was left at the hospital, saying only that it stemmed from a "supervision issue."

The prosecutor's decision was made in part because the grandparents wanted the girl back, Beadle said. But factoring in were assurances that the grandparents had the help they needed to safely welcome the girl back.

"Given that family lives in Iowa and had resources in place, it seemed like the appropriate thing to do," Beadle said.

The Iowa Department of Human Services will follow up as needed, she said.

Officials with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services have stressed that the safe-haven law should be used for children in immediate danger only.

State officials have said parents and caregivers need to understand that abandonment starts a judicial process and that parents who change their minds may find it difficult to regain custody.

Officials have encouraged parents to seek other resources before resorting to abandonment. They've urged desperate parents to ask for help from family, faith-based groups and other community services before abandoning their children at hospitals.

___

On the Net:

DHHS safe-haven page: http://www.hhs.state.ne.us/Children_...ces/SafeHaven/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081009/...17B8R21jpH2ocA