When I read the Associated Press story this past June about the guilty plea for "child abuse or neglect" by a North Dakota woman alleged to have breastfed her child while intoxicated, a few things leapt off the screen at me. I wondered why this mother had pled guilty. As a lawyer I know that people don't plead guilty because they are guilty. Guilty pleas are generally the result of a deal. The accused is waiving the right to a trial in exchange for an agreed upon sentence or in order to be charged with a lesser crime. Sometimes they plead guilty because they are frightened or inadequately represented or fear losing or being separated from their children. This woman pled guilty to the original charge so the "deal for a lesser charge" theory can be eliminated. Why then?
Also of significance to me was that the police were called to the mother's home in response to a "domestic disturbance" call. Often "domestic disturbance" means that the call was in response to domestic violence. Had the original call been made so police would protect the mother?
The next Associated Press article contained a few more clues and some disturbing admissions on the part of the police. This led me to take a look at the Grand Forts Police Incident Summary and States Attorneys Office charge statement. According to these official reports, Stacey Anvarinia stated:
[s]he was assaulted by her boyfriend identified as Harrison, Delbert.
She stated he kneed her in the chin and struck her face when she attempted to leave.
Officers observed red and swelling area on the bridge of her nose, a small scratch to her left cheek, and a red swollen area on her chin.
So Anvarinia had called the police because she had been the victim of a crime. She called for help.
Also according to the police reports, "she was extremely intoxicated." How did the police know this? Neither the police reports nor subsequent police comments to the press give any indication. No report says police smelled alcohol, saw alcohol, heard slurred speech, and the police did not administer a blood-alcohol test. What behavior did Anvarinia engage in that led to her arrest for child abuse or neglect? She "began breast feeding in front of us." Paramedics were called but they transported the baby to the hospital. Battered Stacey Anvarinia was taken to jail.
Reports of this story led to much debate about the safety of drinking alcohol while breastfeeding. That is certainly an important issue. However, for Stacey Anvarinia, I wonder whether we have any reason to believe she was intoxicated at all. As this case got more press, the Grand Forks police have gotten a little defensive on this point:
Well, what truly is the totality of the circumstances? In defense of itself, the police cite her breastfeeding as … what? Evidence of her intoxication? Might having been recently beaten cause one to seem disoriented? Check the time she is alleged to have committed the "crime." 3:57 a.m. Had she slept at all that night? She had injuries to her face. Did she have a head injury? Despite protests that breastfeeding isn't the issue, the police still only point to her breastfeeding in front of them as being "unusual" in her behavior.
What then happened to Delbert Harrison, the man identified as having beaten Stacey Anvarinia? He was neither arrested nor charged with any crime. Why not?
According to a 2005 study in the American Journal of Public Health, homicide is the third leading cause of injury-related death for women who are pregnant or who have given birth in the previous year. A 2002 study in The British Medical Journal concluded that a woman's risk of domestic violence doubles during pregnancy and the year after birth. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported in 2005 that due to poor reporting, we really don't have accurate figures on how high the rate of homicide is for women during pregnancy and the post-partum period because few states report whether a homicide victim was pregnant or had recently given birth. Even given the admitted under-reporting, homicide was found to be the second leading cause of injury-related maternal death. Of those deaths, 57% were caused by gunfire.
Stacey Anvarinia could have been a homicide statistic. According to the police report, she was beaten while trying to leave. She reached out to the police to save her. Instead, they arrested her.
According to news reports, Anvarinia will be sentenced this Friday. Let's see how much jail time you get for breastfeeding in front of the police you ask to save your life.
Thank you for a well-written analysis of this situation. I also have been following this case, and my latest post is here:
http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/07/07/mother-charged-for-drunk-breastfeeding-details-emerge-and-the-case-makes-less-sense
You and I seem to have the same frame of mind here, but I appreciate hearing it from a lawyer’s perspective. You seem to be able to look in the right places for further info (the indictment and charge statement).
I, too, wondered: if they never did a test for her BAC and “could just tell” when someone is drunk, why not take an extra few minutes to get the results of the test?
Also, oddly, in the comments section of my blog post, someone said that she was “shaking the baby by the leg” when the police came to the door, but that “shaking a baby wasn’t as big news as drunk breastfeeding”, obviously accusing me of sensationalism for posing the same questions you pose here. I looked around a bunch, and the only place I could find such a reference was on an ultra-conservative (read: scary) discussion board. Hardly a news source. Plus, if that were true, she’d be charged with abuse immediately instead of neglect.
Anyhow, I’ll also be watching for the sentence she receives, and I look forward to your analysis once again!
.-= Cate´s last blog ..Denmark Finds Swine Flu Case Resistant to Tamiflu =-.
Twitter: Jakearyehmarcus
Thanks Cate!
I went to read the comment on your blog about shaking the child by the leg. That is quite an allegation from someone who can’t cite to anything. I see the commenter didn’t return to provide any support.
I spent years representing women in domestic violence cases. Many women don’t call the police out of fear of just this sort of thing – the victim becomes the accused. If she had been abusing the child when she answered the door, not only would it be in the police report. but they wouldn’t have waiting for her to start breastfeeding before arresting her.
What gets me is the idea that it would be “unusual” for her to be breastfeeding the baby while they took the report?
If the baby is hungry/crying/upset, why wouldn’t she breastfeed it?
And how could it not be disturbed / woken up / upset by all this going on.
Breastfeeding the baby is going to calm both it and the mother and it seems to me like the most natural response to the situation.
.-= Whozat´s last blog ..Daily Peep: You Gotta BelieveNine months of breastfeeding. . . and counting. =-.
Twitter: Jakearyehmarcus
Totally agree @Whozat. Seems to me this a story of what a mom did *right*. She called the police when she was in danger. She fed her child when it needed comforting.
@Jake I’ve also heard references to her previous criminal record. There’s no way to look that up, is there?
Not like it f%$^& matters! What’s important here is that
1) a woman was abused; even the police report mentions here injuries
2)the child–dependent on her for food–was taken away. Where is she? With the allegedly abusive boyfriend?! Certainly she is not being breastfed! And since this happened in April, it seems it is probably too late to start up again!
3)Why has this creep never been charged with anything?! He wasn’t at the house when they arrived, so the police said “Forget it. Let’s go after that weirdo who is clearly drunk because she’s breastfeeding RIGHT in front of us”?!
4) As you probably know, @Jake, how many times did she NOT call for help before this call? And how many women–if they’ve had even a sip to drink and have children–will avoid getting the police involved now?
[tearing hair out]
This case boggles the mind, really.
.-= Cate´s last blog ..Denmark Finds Swine Flu Case Resistant to Tamiflu =-.
Twitter: Jakearyehmarcus
Yeah, I haven’t seen any report of what her supposed criminal record was for and, yes, it doesn’t matter for the purpose of this charge.
I have actually not seen anything saying in whose custody the child is. The child may very well be with the mother. I haven’t seen anything indicating she lost custody. My suspicion is that the guilty plea came out of an agreement that allows her to keep her child. We will probably see that when she is sentenced on Friday.
According to the police, the perp was never charged. I saw a charging document that listed him as a witness but that seems to have been pulled off the ‘net.
Unquestionably this case reaffirms for battered women not only that police won’t help but that you run the risk of being in greater danger or losing your kids if you call the police.
I hope this woman has representation that will refer her to alcohol treatment where she can keep her baby with her. There is a treatment center in Lincoln NE where mothers and children are together through treatment: St. Monica’s Project Mother and Child. I hope she chooses that option over whatever else her “sentence ” may be.
Twitter: Jakearyehmarcus
@deb, mom is facing a maximum of five years in jail. That is the max for the crime with which she was charged and to which she pled guilty – felonious child neglect.
It is great to hear that Nebraska has a substance abuse treatment center where babies can stay with their mothers. There are very few in-patient substance abuse treatment programs where mothers can stay with their children. This keeps many mothers from getting the help that they need.
Of course, at this point we don’t know whether the mother in this case needs substance abuse treatment, though it may have been part of a plea agreement regardless of whether she needs it. Also she is North Dakota so treatment in Nebraska is unlikely to be considered acceptable.
It is good to publicize the existence of such centers though for the many mothers who need them.
.-= Jake´s last blog ..The “Drunken Breastfeeder” Case: Will the Real Felon Please Stand up? =-.
Twitter: feministbreeder
This case questions everything I believe about our justice system. So, there is NO evidence of neglect, OR intoxication, ONLY evidence that the woman had been abused, and SHE’s the one in jail? Is it just me, or does she have TERRIBLE representation. It seems that any lawyer worth their salt could have called out all thing things you, and many others, have called out to not only get her acquitted, but get the charges dropped all together.
Perhaps I’m waxing far too poetically about our justice system. I fear all the heartache I’m about to get myself into by making this my career.
.-= TheFeministBreeder´s last blog ..Happy 3rd Birthday Jonas =-.
Twitter: Jakearyehmarcus
@TheFeministBreeder You see why I discourage you from following in my footsteps. Obviously there may be factors none of us know about. But so much of practicing law is fighting losing battles against outrage. There are great victories but it is also a system rife with injustice.
.-= Jake´s last blog ..The “Drunken Breastfeeder” Case: Will the Real Felon Please Stand up? =-.
Twitter: feministbreeder
Sometimes I think it would be so much easier if I were a quitter. I’d throw my passion for justice out the door and float on through life baking my cakes and organizing my closets over and over. Unfortunatley, not becoming an attorney would be harder on my psyche than the heartbreak of being one, so here I go. Once I’m there, please remind me to take joy in the little wins. That will be the hardest part for me. Nothing is ever good enough.
.-= TheFeministBreeder´s last blog ..Happy 3rd Birthday Jonas =-.
Twitter: Jakearyehmarcus
@TheFeministBreeder There is no throwing your passion for justice out the window. I think you are stuck with it. But seeing cases like this one never gets easier.
In truth, immediately i didn’t understand the essence. But after re-reading all at once became clear.
This conversation brings out the cynical lawyer in me, which is actually most of me. All of the civil rights “victories” in US law, at least those involving rights, are “little” ones. (If you are thinking that Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade were “big” victories, I would only ask you to look at the post-decision histories of those two cases to see how little really changed, and how the “rights” discovered in those two cases have been subject to whittling-away by the Congress and the Supreme Court ever since.)The courts here inherited that from the Anglo legal tradition of individualism. Rights and remedies are never determined by courts in a universal way, unless the determination is to deny rights. Then, the system of jurisprudence operates to make sweeping negative rulings concerning everyone much easier. The entire Constitutional edifice is designed to encourage narrow readings of rights by judges. When a judge expands an interpretation of the law to reach oppressive conduct, especially by government or by business, that judge is far more likely to be reversed than a judge who interprets the same law narrowly to allow the oppressive conduct to continue. In this case the whole system worked in an entirely predictable way. The cops behaved outrageously, the victim was induced, threatened, coerced to take a guilty plea–thereby saving the judicial system from having to do the extra work of a trial with all of its messiness and paperwork, the guilty party–the batterer (not including the police, who seem to admit quite readily that they had no probable cause for arrest and therefore violated federal civil rights law and state tort law) got away easily. Our justice system operates to encourage this result. Get a law degree, or don’t get a law degree, either way, don’t ever be satisfied with the little victories our system doles out. They’re usually smaller than “little” and sometimes they’re not even victories.
[...] can our society do to protect the breastfeeding relationship? Well, for starters, let’s not criminalize breastfeeding. Next, start assuming that new babies will breastfeed and address complications and choices [...]
[...] This post was Twitted by veggie_mom2003 [...]
[...] If you’d like to hear about this case from a legal perspective, go to the aforementioned Sustainable Mothering post. [...]
That is truly disturbing. How sad that if she had pulled out a bottle to feed her child no one would have even flinched and yet by doing something that is the most NATURAL and most NORMAL, the thing her body was made to do, which have such a ridiculous and twisted outcome. Thanks for posting this!
.-= Amy´s last blog ..Things I’m Enjoying These Days (Part 3?) =-.
[...] @Sustainable Mothering – “The ‘Drunken Breastfeeder’ Case: Will the real felon please stand up?” [...]