Maybe Oprah should hire Paul Harvey

by Robert Franklin

Her viewers might want to know “the rest of the story.”

Oprah’s guest on this show was Brenda Slaby, an Assistant Principal in the West Clermont (Ohio) School system who, in 2007, left her 2-year-old daughter in the car alone for eight hours. It was August, the car was closed and the little girl died of hyperthermia.

Of course it was an accident; Slaby told Oprah what she’d told police the day of the incident – that she’d been trying to do too much with her life, was too busy, too harried and little Cecilia tragically paid the price. Slaby was, as you might expect, terribly distraught. Oprah empathized and used Slaby to promote her new mantra “slow down,” and derive an uplifting message from the tragedy. Slaby said her daughter’s death had made her find a higher purpose in life – “it’s the kids who matter.” Here’s a link to the Oprah online piece.

But now for the rest of the story.

This was not the first time Slaby had left Cecilia alone in a closed car, nor was it the second, nor the third. Apparently it was at least the fifth time. School Director Debbie Wolf grew so concerned about Slaby’s behavior that she sat her down and reminded her that children “should never be left in a car alone.” And, prompted by Slaby’s repeatedly leaving Cecilia in her car, School Director Laura Carr even wrote a piece for the school newsletter saying the same thing.

The video surveillance camera in the school parking lot that day showed Slaby unloading her car within feet of her sleeping child and walking past her at least six times while unloading before finally parking.

Oprah tells us none of the above. But now for the real kicker which Oprah also doesn’t disclose. Although the police knew all of the above, had statements by teachers and school administrators about Slaby’s behavior and recommended that charges be filed against her, Clermont County Prosecutor Don White never charged Slaby with a crime. Rebuffing community demands that she be charged with manslaughter and child endangering, White refused with the remarkable claim that in Ohio, actions committed negligently aren’t crimes.

Say what? In every jurisdiction I know about, negligently causing the death of another person constitutes manslaughter. It turns out it does in Ohio too and that White were lying when he claimed otherwise. It also turns out that White knew it. In 2000, he charged Jerry and Bonnie Bittner in a much less egregious case of leaving a child in a closed car, prevailed at trial and sent Jerry to jail for 1 year on the endangering charge and 4 years for manslaughter even though it was Bonnie who had actually done the deed.