Felony charges aren’t fitting for baby sitter
The Standard was a bit surprised to learn prosecutors tried for — and received — a felony indictment against Tonya St. Clair for child neglect.
St. Clair has made headlines recently as the person who was in charge of caring for 4-year-old Damion Bouldin when he was allowed to wander down to the Barren Fork River where he slipped in and drowned.
While a natural first reaction is to criticize St. Clair for not supplying proper supervision, a more accurate description is that the tragedy is a terrible accident — not a case of child neglect.
According to first-hand information provided by St. Clair’s mother, Wendy Barnhill, St. Clair was often asked to watch Bouldin and his two siblings with little or no warning. Bouldin’s parents — listed on the child’s obituary as Angela Bouldin and Phillip Haston — would frequently drop the three children off, say they were running to the store for about an hour, and then never return. Many times it would be the next day before they came back to pick up their three children.
Bouldin’s parents would do this with great regularity, taking advantage of St. Clair’s inability to say no. If anything, she is guilty of not having the guts to stand up and say, “I’m not going to watch your children today. You take them with you.”
It’s also important to note that St. Clair says she never received a dime for all the time she provided child care. This further illustrates how the parents were taking advantage of her.
What’s just as puzzling as prosecutors pursuing a felony indictment against St. Clair is the fact they have yet to take either of Bouldin’s parents before the grand jury, to the Standard’s knowledge. What sort of parents would drop their three small children — all under the age of 4 — off at a friends house and then leave them unexpectedly for the night?
If neglect is involved, it appears the parents, not Tonya St. Clair, are the culprits.
For further proof of this, you don’t have to look any further back than the last days of December when there was a fire at this same family’s apartment. Angela and Phillip left the apartment — and then told nearby police officers their children were still inside the burning building. It was the police officers — and a bystander who had never met the family before — who went back in the house to save the children. This was all done while the parents remained safely outside the apartment.
If prosecutors are looking for scapegoats in this terrible tragedy, they are looking in the wrong place. Yes, Tonya St. Clair did allow Damion Bouldin to leave her sight, but that’s hardly cause for a felony child neglect charge.
The grand jury may have returned an indictment, but it’s certainly within the powers of local prosecutors to use their best judgment and drop the charges. Playing hardball with a lady who already feels bad enough about a child’s unfortunate death is not in the best interest of justice.