Undercover_Man

Hello. My girlfriend goes to a private school. She brings her children to school with her sometimes cause everyone loves babies . Well there are some mean people out there and this one girl was holding Anthony and she dropped him on purpose. Luckily another girl was there to catch his head from hitting the floor.

Well this girl who was holding Anthony was thrown out of school. My girlfriend took Anthony and the rest of the kids to the hospital for a regular checkup today and they said that anthony has a splintered bone in his leg. He has to have it operated on so they can fix it.

The police told my girlfriend that she should press charges on the girl who dropped him. Any idea what kind of charges could be pressed on this girl? She needs to be punished badly for deliberately dropping someone elses baby.

Any legal advice that can be done about this would be helpful. It's not every day that she's in court pressing charges on someone.

- Undercover_Man

Jinn

The only thing that comes to mind is how you're going to demonstrate malice? Certainly, dropping a baby is bad. But what you really want to sue for is intentionally dropping the baby. You've failed to elaborate on it here, how you knew she did it intentionally. Make sure you can back that up in court. Eye-witnesses, perhaps? Sworn statements by friends, acknowleding some sort of disagreement between these two in the past?

Intent is a difficult thing to prove, especially as time passes. Start collecting evidence beyond your girlfriends, or it becomes a she-said-she-said.

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kurty[B]

Everything JinnKai said is what I was going to say, but I just wanted to reiterate this. Eye-witnesses. If it's your word, or your SO's word against this girl that probably will not be enough. If it's a whole classroom of people who witnessed the intentional dropping you have something. Were the police involved with this incident, did they make a report? If no police were notified the situation becomes even more difficult.

Good luck, that's certainly a POS thing to do.

fhqwhgads

Another hurdle is going to be showing a causative link between the injury and the event. How much time passed between the time that the baby was dropped and the time the injury was discovered? Is there going to be someone to testify that this type of injury can be sustained by that type of fall?

Filing charges against another party is different in every state. It may be a simple act of going to the courthouse and filing a charging document. In my state, one party can press misdemeanor charges against another party at the commissioner's office... but I can't say that it's the same for every state.

The_Jazz

If I read the OP correctly, the question is about criminal charges, not civil. Those are two very different things.

If you are only concerned about filing criminal charges (which is going to be necessary for the civil case), then really your girlfriend only needs to worry about cooperating with the police and the prosecutor. I imagine that assault and battery, willful endagement of a child and criminal negligence are all on the table here, and I'll bet that you find that the police and prosecutor both chomp at the bit to put this girl away.

I'm going to differ slightly with what people have said above about the civil charge. First and foremost, you need to decide what you want out of the civil case. If this girl either has money on her own or is still a minor living with her parents, you might be able to collect something. If she's poor and over 18, you may easily win $1M in a judgement and never see a dime. Obviously there may be something cathartic in a civil suit that's missing from a criminal one, but it looks like the police want to send her to jail for at least a few years. Once that happens, the likelyhood of her having the wherewithall to pay any judgement against her drops. Conversely, the civil case has a lower chance of succeeding if criminal charges are never filed.

As far as evidence collection, I don't think that you need to worry about it at this point. This kind of personal injury attracts lawyers like flies to a corpse, and that will be one of the tasks they're charged with to best represent you. This is definitely not a small claims court case, since we're talking surgery on a young child. As an insurance guy, I can tell you that generally speaking that kind of injury is worth $250k+, although that's by no means guaranteed.

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Toaster126

Why on earth would someone intentionally drop the baby in a situation like that?

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optik_nerve

After The_Jazz's post. I started thinking if you really wanted to take it to the max you could also get for attempted manslaughter.

I'm not that great at all with legal issues but it seems to me that if a baby is dropped in the right spot it could cause serious injury or almost death, which in turn could be put against the lady who dropped him.

The_Jazz

One of my favorite sayings in my job is that as soon as you make something idiot-proof, someone comes along and builds a better idiot. This seems like further proof of that theorum.

I have guesses on why this happened, but I'll keep my own counsel until the OP comes back.

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Sultana

I believe that would be up to the local District Atty, not the aggrieved family.

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The_Jazz

You need to take the "almost" out of that sentence. Dropping a baby can easily kill it, especially if you drop it on its head or neck.

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shakran

No, she can file a civil suit without having the backing of the criminal case. A guilty verdict would help, but it's not strictly necessary. Remember OJ? Found not guilty, still lost the wrongful death lawsuit.

Now, not to be too hard on the OP but

1) No, everyone does not love babies. Many people really hate it when you bring a baby to an adult situation such as a workplace or college.

2) If this girl is that mean, why in hell was she allowed to hold the child?

3) If this girl is not that mean, why are we automatically assuming she dropped the kid on purpose?

Bill O'Rights

Wrong.
There is a time and a place. School is neither.

That said...
If this "mean" girl, that dropped the baby, did so on purpose (I assume that's why she was thrown out of school?)...then that's got to the most fucked up thing that I've seen on these boards. And I've seen some majorly fucked up things.

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The_Jazz

Just as clarification, I meant that a criminal conviction would greatly increase the odds of success in the civil case. However, not filing criminal charges at all would be a big negative to a jury, in that it will just look like a money grab. Your OJ example tests out with this - if there hadn't been a trial, no civil jury would have found against him.

Sorry for my vagueness.

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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
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Undercover_Man

Ok, first of all thank you all for your input. I really appreciate this. Here's some responses to the posts posted here up to this point:

Intent or malice. Got it, I'll do some research.

Yes, this happened in the classroom and the teacher was a witness too. Police have not been notified because she took the baby to the hospital along with the other two to have them a regular checkup. The baby that was dropped had xrays and found the splintered leg bone. The police got involved then. Sort of. She said that they advised that she press charges. What else they did I don't know. She said that the girl and my gf would have to go to the school meeting with parents and that my gf would try to get charges pressed at that time.

This is Oregan.

Hmmm...criminal and civil charges. Forgot about the difference between them. She's wanting the go the max on this as long as it doesn't cost a trillion $$$ with low risk of her losing. She won't go to small claims, I know that for sure.

Ooooo...attempted manslaughter. How evilishly entertaining. That'd ruin the girls life for sure. I'm not out to ruin lives here. I don't like the idea of ppl taking advantage of the laws many loopholes and such. I don't want to abuse the system. But if it's in our favor, then I'll be a damn hypocrite and go to the max with this. Ha ha.

I'm here, speak freely.

I sort of understand what your talking about. Care to explain more?

The_Jazz

OK, there are two court systems in the US - criminal and civil. Criminal court exclusively involves breaking the law. Every case, without exception, is the "state" versus the individual. "State" means either the Federal, state or local government. In this case, it would almost certainly be state charges. When the police come to your girlfriend and say they want her to press charges, they mean that they want her cooperation in prosecuting this other girl. The punishment can range from virtually nothing, fine and jail time.

Civil court is where people and corporations resolves greivances against each other. Your girlfriend and her baby were done harm by this individual, and they would recoup that loss in civil court. There is no jail time involved, and the state only acts as an artibter.

As far as my comment on why it happened, well, I think that this all happened in a high school given the description. That means immature people are involved from the very outset. The girl most likely has issues far beyond what's found in most high schools. I agree that anyone that would intentionally drop a baby needs to be immediately and severely punished.

It's also entirely possible that your girlfriend concocted the whole story to cover up her own mistakes. I find it very difficult to believe that a girl with 3 children wouldn't recognize that the baby had serious injuries after this kind of fall. As I see it, she was at the very least negligent in not immediately seeking medical attention. I also find it very hard to believe that a high school principal that knew of this event wouldn't call the police himself if for no other reason than to cover his own butt. The school is potentially liable here since it happened their campus.

You asked. You may not like my answer, but you did ask.

__________________
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

shakran

I have further trouble believing that a highschool principal would let a student take their children to class with them. That's why I've been assuming we're talking about a college/community college here.

Redjake

I have a problem believing someone would drop a baby on purpose in front of other people. This is what will win her case in court. Why was she given the baby to begin with if she was a mean person? Why would she drop the baby if she wasn't a mean person? An accident? Boom, not guilty. This one will be tough if she really did drop it on purpose in front of other people.

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analog

Good luck proving it was on purpose. And...

Lasereth

No one is stupid enough to drop a baby on purpose in front of others. There has to be more to the story than this. There might be some psychos that are mean enough to drop the baby, but not in front of others. It's really easy to automatically assume she meant it on purpose so you can have an escape route when people ask what happened...plus you get lots of money from court!

Unless the dropper admitted to dropping the baby on purpose, I'd like to hear more info.

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MSD

Private School.

I rest my case.

The_Jazz

Reopen it. Private school does not necessarily mean lots of money. My own high school education is an excellent example. My brother and I went to exclusive private high schools but my parents barely had two nickels to rub together. Scholarships paid for most of our educations and I paid off the last of the loans that my parents took out for all of my education a few years ago. Also, the OP never once used the words "private school". Check his posts.

As to the topic of this thread, I'm now officially calling bullshit on the OP. There are way too many unanswered questions and contradictory "facts" from the story. There's also the disapearing act to take into consideration.

__________________
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

Cynthetiq

Same for Skogafoss.. she went to private school, same one that Jane Fonda attended as a matter of fact. But getting money from her would have been getting blood from a stone. They could barely afford the tuition. So it's not an automatic that private school means they have money, it just means that the parents have made some thoughts to education versus public school.

I also second the fact that I don't like children in the workplace. I grew up in my mother's lab. I sat quietly and most people never knew I was there. But to hear some child blabbering, crying, running about in the workplace, classrooms, it unacceptable to me. I'm there for a different purpose, not to socialize or babysit.

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Bill O'Rights

I did...
It was his opening statement.

I do, however, agree with the bullshit call.

__________________
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

Ch'i

I was going to shed some advice until I read this. Your friend deserves reparations for the incident, and the girl who dropped the baby deserves her punishment if she did it on purpose. As for you, however, I do no care, or hold sympathy, for people of a vindictive nature.