Case dismissed against mother who left baby alone in parked car

Charges were dismissed against a mother who left her 16-month-old child unattended in her running car while she shopped at Big Lots just days before Christmas.

“You sure picked a heck of a county to leave your child unattended in a vehicle,” said General Sessions Judge Larry Ross referring to the 1995 deaths of two toddlers left in an automobile by Jennie Ducker. The boys died of overexposure to heat when their mother fell asleep inside a hotel room she was visiting. Ducker is still in prison serving an 18-year sentence for aggravated child neglect.

“She (Ducker) intended to be right back too. There are so many things that can happen. There are all kinds of people out there, even in McMinnville,” said Ross.

The defendant, Heather Diane Savage, was charged after a motorist reported seeing a child unattended in a parked car in Northgate Shopping Center on Dec. 21. Police suspect Savage left her young son unattended for about seven minutes while she was inside Big Lots. She was arrested for child neglect.

“What she did was not wise, but it wasn’t criminal behavior,” said Savage’s attorney Rick Stacey. “Other people I’ve spoken to have done the same thing, left a child in a car for a short period of time, but we don’t charge them.”

In deciding to dismiss the charge, Ross said he believed the tearful mother had learned her lesson and that the embarrassment brought by her lapse in judgment was punishment enough. However, he did not excuse her actions.

“You just can’t leave a child unattended in a car, or anywhere, for any length of time,” Ross said.

While charges were dismissed, prosecutors could elect to take the case before the grand jury and seek an indictment against Savage at a later date.