A mother of four was handcuffed in front of her children and taken to jail after allowing her 11-year-old son to walk into a small town.
Brittany Patterson went to take her oldest son to a medical appointment on Oct. 30, and her youngest, 11-year-old Soren, was supposed to come along but wasn’t there when it was time to leave. Reason Magazine reports.
She had thought he was just playing in the woods or visiting his grandmother, Patterson told the outlet, noting that her father lives with them and her mother and sisters live just two minutes away.
But as it turns out, Soren decided to walk to downtown Mineral Bluff, a town of just 370 residents less than a mile from their home.
He was spotted on the roadside by a woman who asked if he was OK, and although he replied that he was fine, the woman called the police, the magazine reports.
Brittany Patterson was handcuffed and taken to jail in front of her children after her son walked less than a mile into a small town
A female sheriff’s deputy picked up the boy and called Patterson.
“She asked me if I knew he was in town and I said ‘no,'” the mother said.
She said she was angry because Soren had gone into town without letting anyone know, but she didn’t think there was any reason to worry.
“I didn’t panic because I know the roads and I know he’s mature enough to walk there without incident,” Patterson said of the street, which has a speed limit of up to 55 mph.
However, the deputy “continued to talk about how he could have been run over or kidnapped or that ‘something’ could have happened,” Patterson said.
The deputy eventually drove Soren home and left him with his grandfather.
When Patterson eventually returned home, she scolded her son for his actions – which she thought was the end of her misery.
But around 6:30 that evening, the deputy showed up with another officer, handcuffed Patterson and took her to jail, where she was fingerprinted, had her mugshot taken and put in jail scrubs. according to an online fundraiser for her legal bills.
She said she didn’t understand what was going on because she grew up in the area and had unsupervised time to wander and play, and raised her children that way.
Patterson raised her children without supervision and time to roam and play
The town of Mineral Bluff, Georgia, is home to just 370 people – and the speed limit on the road there is 56 km/h
Patterson was eventually released on $500 bail, but her troubles didn’t end there.
The next day, a case manager from the Department of Family and Children Services arrived at her home for a home visit and even interviewed Patterson’s oldest son at his school.
The case manager told Patterson that everything seemed fine, she told Reason Magazine, but a few days later the Department of Family and Children Services presented her with a “safety plan” for her to sign.
It would require her to delegate a “safety person” as a “knowing participant and guardian” to watch over the children when she leaves the house.
The plan would also require Patterson to download an app on Soren’s cell phone to monitor his location – something she has refused to do.
Instead, she contacted attorney David DeLugas, the head of ParentsUSA — a nonprofit organization that provides pro bono legal assistance to parents wrongly arrested and prosecuted for child neglect.
Patterson now faces a reckless endangerment charge, a $1,000 fine and a year in jail after she refused to download a tracking app on her son’s phone
An assistant district attorney has since told DeLugas that if Patterson sang the safety plan, the criminal charges against her would be dropped.
But DeLugas responded by saying that if Patterson were forced to sign a safety plan just because her son walked somewhere without her knowing his exact location, he wouldn’t be able to visit friends or have any independence.
Still, the assistant district attorney continued to insist that Soren had been in danger and therefore a safety plan was necessary.
She now faces a reckless endangerment charge, a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.