Reported by: Tom McKee
Photographed by: Gary Hughes
Union Township police investigation urged charge of child endangering against toddler's mother.
Documents released by Union Township police Wednesday show that two-year-old Cecilia Slaby had been left unattended in family vehicles numerous times before she died in her mother's hot car behind Glen Este Middle School August 23.
That information was contained in a 38-page report sent to Clermont County Prosecutor Don White, who on Tuesday said he would not prosecute Brenda Slaby, the child's mother, in the case.
White said it was a tragic accident, not a crime.
In the report, police recommended filing a charge of child endangering against Slaby for the heat-related death of her daughter Cecilia.
That would have required a legal standard of recklessness, which White said wasn't met by any of the evidence considered in the case.
According to the police report, the three incidents occurred at The Compass School on Waterstone Boulevard in Deerfield Township, Warren County. The Slaby's older daughter is enrolled there as a student. Two were this past winter and the third was on August 21.
A parent at the school, Karen Clary, told police that in the winter of 2007, she saw a baby alone in a car outside the school when she dropped off one of her children. She told police that a short time later, a man came out of the school, got in the car and drove away.
A week later, Clary reported the same baby alone in the same car. The parents turned out to be the Slabys.
Debbie Wolf was School Director at the time, and according to the police report, spoke to Brenda Slaby, telling her that her child should never be left in a car alone.
Wolf noted in a written statement to police that Slaby apologized and there was no other occurrence.
Two other incidents happened in the two days immediately before Cecilia's death, according to the police report.
On August 21, a teacher at the school, Tara Phillips, told police that Slaby came to pick her daughter up at 5:10 p.m. She allegedly told the child to hurry up, "because the baby was in the car."
When officers questioned Phillips about how long Cecilia was in the car, she replied, "approximately two minutes." The next day, Brenda Slaby came to the school at 3:05 p.m. and her daughter asked her to watch her part in a play.
"Mom stayed and they both left at 3:15 p.m.," Phillips noted. "Mom didn't go outside to check on the baby."
Those instances prompted School Director Laura Carr to put an article in the newsletter entitled, "Parking Lot Reminders."
It contained the words, "It remains a safety precaution that no child is left alone either in the school or in the car."
Investigators also talked to a number of Slaby's colleagues at Glen Este Middle School.
None of them said that they ever saw their assistant principal leave her children unattended. In fact, they said she often brought them into the school building with her if they were in her care.
The Union Township Police material also contained a statement from Anne Hoffman, who was the regular babysitter for Cecilia.
She told investigators that she had expected Slaby to drop off Cecilia between 6:45 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 23.
When Slaby didn't show up, Hoffman said, "I didn't call to see where she was because a couple of times Gary [Brenda's husband] kept her [Cecilia] home with him and they didn't call to tell me until later."
In her statement to police, Hoffman described Cecilia as the type of child who was usually asleep upon arrival at her house and didn't wake up until around 10:00 a.m.
"I know Brenda was stressed because of all the prep work for the first day of school," Hoffman said in her statement. "She has always been there to pick up both girls and I have never had any problems with Brenda at all."
Hoffman added that she cleans the Slaby house every other Saturday.
The investigation report went into great detail about Brenda Slaby's activities on August 23.
According to the report, she left her Symmes Township house around 6:30 a.m. and headed toward Union Township with Cecilia in a child restraint seat.
As she turned onto State Route 32 toward Batavia, police say Slaby intended to exit at Eastgate Boulevard and head to Hoffman's house.
"Brenda Slaby admitted she thought it was too early to drop her daughter at the sitter's house," wrote Officer Geremy Grooms. "She changed into the left lane and drove to Busken Bakery on Old State Route 74 at Glen Este-Withamsville Road."
The narrative continued with the words, "Brenda Slaby admitted to investigators that she never thought of the child from the point where she changed lanes at Eastgate Boulevard."
According to the investigative report, Slaby picked up eight-dozen donuts at Bueken, paid $59.22 for them with a credit card, and then headed to the Middle School.
A security camera at the school showed Slaby backing her SUV up to the school and unloading the donuts from the rear hatch, just a few feet from where Cecilia was in the back seat on the driver's side of the vehicle.
In fact, the surveillance video indicates she passed by Cecilia more than half-a-dozen times before parking and entering the school around 7:00 a.m.
Both Prosecutor White and Brenda Slaby's attorney, Scott Croswell, agreed that the facts in the case did not warrant a criminal charge.
The emotional case has produced widely varying opinions on whether Slaby should be prosecuted.
White said Tuesday that half the callers said Slaby should be charged and the other half said she'd suffered enough through the loss of her daughter.
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