If you have not caught this yet, here is the summary.
Treffly Coyne is a mother from Chicago who ducked out of her car for a few minutes to donate $8.29 to a Salvation Army kettle. She was no more than 10 yards away from her sleeping 2 year old daughter. She locked and alarmed the car, and even put on the emergency lights.
A security office stepped in, the police were called, and on advice from her husband, Treffly did not disclose any information to the police.
Coyne asserts that the community service officer launched into a tirade and refused to listen to her explanation of events. The even has sparked a blogging debate with onliners divided over Treffly's actions.
Has anyone else reading this ever left their 2 or 3 year old in the car while you duck in to pay for your petrol? I have......
3 comments:
10:01 am
I can't believe this justice!! Free her!!
2:13 pm
sanity has prevailed...
charges dropped
http://www.wqad.com/Global/story.asp?S=8010975&nav=1sW7Hs5b
5:21 am
Treffly Coyne is a fine mother who happened to be out on an excursion planned by her children to donate to charity. A lesson we would all do better to be taught by her kids. Unfortunately the government, very concerned about the welfare of her child stepped in. Somehow the officer saw that a sleeping two year old in a warm and safe locked car with the alarm activated would be better off without the mother who cares for her.
The police would not listen to her story, they refused to listen to witnesses, they did not investigate by going into the store to look at the security video.
Instead, they arrested Treffly Coyne, took custody of her two year old child, broke up her family, and most disturbing, the police abandoned three little girls at the Walmart… left them to their own luck, crying on the curb.
All because the government decided Treffly Coynes family needed its “protection.”
Her children were never in any danger until the representatives of the government showed up.
The police chief of Crestwood, Timothy Sulikowski, knew that there was no evidence that Ms. Coyne had done anything wrong, yet he still decided she needed to be charged and prosecuted.
TO COVER UP THE HORRIBLE MISTAKES AND MISCONDUCT OF THE CRESTWOOD POLICE.
For 97 days she was labled a child abuser by the state, investigated by the DCFS or CPS, paid expensive legal bills and suffered the public humiliation brought on by the unsubstantiated charges of the Crestwood Police.
Even when the prosecutor dropped the charges for lack of evidence, the police chief and Mayor Robert Stranczek continued to make public statements against Treffly Coyne.
Treffly Coyne is now suing the Village of Crestwood, police officers James Ciukaj, Forrest Wondolowski and Angel Brudnicki in federal court.
She would have preferred to have won in criminal court.
All she asked for was an apology and that the charges would be dropped. Thousands of dollars later, and hundreds of thousands of posts on the internet, the Crestwood Police cannot even give her that.
A terrible mistake was made that night at the Walmart and the Crestwood Police and Mayor Stranczek refuse to acknowlege it. Until they do, all citizens, all families in Crestwood are in danger of these kinds of police abuse.
Her fight is not over. The federal Judge will hear the case and has the power to direct the Crestwood Police to make changes in their policies and procedures.
Hopefully she will prevail in her fight, which is a fight for all of our civil rights and her case will create stronger boundaries between the family and the police.
It was wrong to arrest that mother and subject her children to witness in terror the actions of the police.
What is more wrong is that the woman has to fight such wrongdoing in federal court.
A victory for Treffly Coyne will be a victory for all American Families. The civil rights she is fighting for our your civil rights as well.
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