Monday, November 5, 2012

One of the worst things that can happen to a human being

Joachim De Posada

By Joachim De Posada

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One of the worst things that can happen to a human being.

I was part of a panel on Arrebatados, a television show carried by America TeVe channel 41 in Miami and 24 in Puerto Rico.

The theme of the program related to what kind of punishment should a parent who forgets a baby in the car and dies should be given.

I knew and expected the panel to be in disagreement in regards to what should be done but the intensity and emotionality of the argument really surprised me.

The case I discussed during the program was about a Peruvian non US citizen living in Florida, named Antonio  Balta who got a 20 year prison term for forgetting his 9 month old daughter, Veronika, in his car and she died.

Some background so that you can better understand the situation.

One horrible morning, Antonio dropped off his girlfriend, Michelle, at the Gulfstream Park Racetrack in Hallandale Beach, Florida, where she worked as a waitress and a horse groomer.  The couple planned to drive north as soon as she finished her shift. Antonio, her 28 year old boyfriend, told Michelle not to worry; he would take care of all the last minute errands. AS she got out of his car, she kissed him and her 9 month old daughter Veronika goodbye.

Once alone with Veronika, Antonio checked off his pre travel chores such as having the car washed, saying good bye to his landlord, loading their belongings in the car and going to a gas station to fill the tank and buy a bag of Fritos and a Starbucks cup of coffee.

When he returned to the Gulfstream parking lot around 1pm, March 13, 2004 to be exact, it was 65 degrees, cool enough for some Gulf stream’s customers to wear light jackets.

He checked with Michelle and told her that everything was ready and that when she got out of work they would head north.

She asked him what he planned to do until then and he said he had to talk to his boss for a minute to make sure that his transfer to Saratoga Race Track up north would go smoothly.

Here is an interesting piece of information: She warned him not to leave the baby in the car alone.

Antonio had taken his daughter inside the track a couple times before and the loud, flashing slot machines and the bunch of people gathered there had made her cry.

So, mistake number one, he cracked the front window a little to give the baby some air and didn’t roll down the window too much because he didn’t want someone to kidnap the baby. He left the child alone and went inside the race track to look for his boss.

Bad luck I guess, because that was the day of the Florida Derby, the track’s busiest day of the year and his boss, a horse trainer didn’t have the time to see him.

Now, an important thing he did: He went back to the car to check on the little baby. He looked through the window and saw her playing happily with her favorite toy, a pink bunny with the words I love you across the chest. My dear readers, even as I write this, my eyes get watery for just thinking and writing about this. But I must continue to make the point in this article. Obviously, this proves that there was no intent on his part to harm the child.

He then made a mistake, he went back inside the track and this time he ran into some friends. As he told them that he was moving north, he placed a few bets, all under 10 bucks, all on long shot horses he had taken care of in the stables and thought they were good enough to win although few people thought so. He wanted to win some extra cash for the trip.

When the races were over, Antonio said good bye to his friends but they pleaded with him to hang out just a while longer. This was his biggest mistake. Surveillance tapes would later show he stayed there for around two hours.

When he stepped out, he felt warmer, rightly so, since the temperature had risen to 80 degrees. I imagine that at that precise moment a dreadful thought most have entered his mind because he ran to his car and found his little girl with her eyes closed, he thought sleeping but no, not sleeping, dead.

He has spent the last six years in a prison cell decorated with pictures of his little girl. Even though he knows he was guilty, he expected a lenient sentence when on the advice of his attorney, he pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter of a child. Instead he got 20 years, one of the longest, if not longest sentences in the whole country.

This horrible situation happens somewhere once a week from spring through fall. Children die this way more than 30 times a year. In more than 50% of cases, it is the parent who forgets the child in the car.

According to kidsandcars.org a Kansas based safety advocacy group, more than 450 children have died from hyperthermia in cars since the mid 1990’s when safety experts told parents to move car seats to the back, to avoid the dangers of an accident or the passenger side airbag harming the child.

I agree that Antonio has to be punished. But his worst punishment, one that I can’t even begin to comprehend is having killed your own child.

Sending him to prison 20 years, has taken him away from his other two children, I don’t know how close he was to them, but now he definitely is not close to them because he is locked up. And to keep him there, it will cost one million dollars to society, paid for tax payers. 

What has been gained with that punishment? Nothing. Just the punishment in itself.

How about if he was given maybe a couple of years in prison if at all, and ten years or even 20 years of probation where he reports once a week to a parole officer and he is given 1,000 hours of community work doing something to help other parents be more careful with their kids. Isn’t this a much more productive approach?

In Puerto Rico, I believe the maximum penalty for this crime is three years.  In Florida, after Antonio’s conviction, it was reviewed and is now 5 years. Antonio can’t appeal because he plead guilty to the charge.

Dr. Cynthia Galinaltis who left her 21 month old child in the car and died, was convicted recently on a charge of negligent homicide in Puerto Rico.

Arecibo Superior Judge Marta Maria Rosario sentenced her to serve one year and nine months on probation. She of course, could have faced three years in prison.

I agree with the sentence except for one thing. I believe that besides probation, she should have received 200 or 300 or 500 hundred hours of community service. A medical doctor by training, I am sure she could have prepared a lecture or a training program to help parents avoid this situation or at least create awareness in the public’s mind about how to avoid this horrible situation.

I was shocked how some people told me that a parent that does this should be electrocuted, sentenced to life in prison and some extremists even told me that the parent should be left inside the car, windows rolled up for the same time the child stayed in the car.

Even in the panel that participated in the television program, some thought he should get life in prison.

I hope that with this article, I raise some awareness on this situation and somehow help parents think about how important it is to take measures so that this can’t happen.

For example, buying a sensor that warns you if you leave the child inside the car, just like the sound that you hear when you leave your lights on by mistake.

Placing your briefcase or purse next to the child, talking to the child so that he or she doesn’t fall sleep or doing something that will help you remember that you have your child with you in the car.

You can do a lot to prevent this from happening. Please, do so.

 


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