In December of 2006, 27 year old Michelle Richardson ditched her newborn son in a McDonalds bathroom. After being caught and arrested three days later (thank goodness for surveillance cameras!), Michelle cited the North Carolina surrender law as her reason for leaving the baby.
While some are focusing on Michelle’s decision to leave her baby in a semi-public and most likely unattended restroom, rather than choosing a hospital, church, fire station, or even the drive-thru clerk, the real issue at hand here is the fact that the state decided to give the baby back to Michelle.
I’m sorry, but… come again? Michelle Richardson said herself that she had every intention of going along with the state’s safe surrender law, meaning that she was choosing to surrender her baby to the care of the state, and walk away with no consequences.
Normally I’m all for giving overwhelmed parents the benefit of the doubt, and perhaps working to give them second chances with their babies. But, with Michelle Richardson? Absolutely not, and here’s why:
- Michelle Richardson dumped her baby in a BATHROOM. A bathroom, by no stretch of the imagination, is a responsible adult, as defined by North Carolina’s safe surrender law. Worse still, she hid him between a stall divider and a wall (I’m assuming behind/next to a toilet).
- Going on that, Michelle Richardson left her baby with the thought of a safe haven to surrender her child to in mind. She left the baby with every intention of surrendering him and not getting him back.
- The now eleven month old baby boy, Cory, was not Michelle’s first. In fact, he is her sixth child. Her other children, including twins that she left at a hospital in September of 2005, are in state custody or adopted, with the exception of a three year old, who she has joint custody of, along with the child’s biological father.
- Michelle Richardson has, in the past, been arrested and in and out of court for a variety of charges, including writing bad checks, embezzlement, and, get this – child abuse.
It really rankles that this woman is getting a baby she decided she did not want back. Especially given the circumstances surrounding her abandonment of him, her track record with her other children, and her criminal history (especially the child abuse).
Plus, give this some thought: as it stands, Michelle Richardson abandoned her child, but simply had to deal with social workers and parenting classes, a few misdemeanors, and some bad publicity. But what if her son had died? What if the baby hadn’t been found, and he died of dehydration? What if the baby somehow rolled over and smothered? What if the baby was found, but was kidnapped and subsequently murdered? All of a sudden she would get a lot more than a silly slap on the wrist and her unwanted son back – she would be strung up on murder charges.
I strongly feel that the child protective services department of North Carolina did NOT make the right decision. In fact, they made a very stupid one. And it would not surprise me in the least if this decision comes back to haunt them in a few years, when Michelle Richardson is once again in the spotlight, this time for child abuse, neglect or outright abandonment.
I am glad there are surrender laws of the such, as it saves a lot of children from abuse, neglect, etc. But what the fuck? She gave her child up. She didn’t want him. So they give him back? When she has 6 that she doesn’t want and abused?
Well doesn’t NC CPS suck ass. At any rate, she should just get fixed, as if she didn’t learn her lesson after the first three “mistakes”. One can only imagine what the poor child has gone through since she has had him back.
“At any rate, she should just get fixed”
She should be treated like the feral cats are treated: caught, spayed and tagged, then returned to the streets where she will no longer be able to breed with no rhyme or reason.
I know this is soo off topic, but did you try to dampen your hair a little before you rolled it up with the hot sticks
I can’t believe that social services didn’t think this through – Surely if they did their research and sat down to think about this situation, the woman wouldn’t have a chance in hell of getting the kid back?
Wow, that is sad. I cant people a person would actually stoop that low. I cant believe with her history, they were stupid enough to give the baby back to her. What idiots!
I wish I were shocked. Sydney’s mom took her sister to the hospital at three days old and attempted to give her to anyone who would take her. I do think she got arrested though and it was brought up against her many times to show pattern.
She tried to sell Sydney to the highest bidder and actually had a little scam going with a few families. The kicker is that Sydney was in foster care at the time and the foster mother was in on it. They were letting her spend the weekends with a family from her church and they were paying for things for the mom the whole time.
And at the time it was a toss up of if she was going back to mom or coming to our house or somewhere else. So no, I’m not shocked by NC CPS at all. The system is a joke.
It makes no sense to me – if this woman has already surrendered her twins the proper way, so why on earth couldn’t she do the same with this one?
And why the hell hasn’t anyone sewn this bitches legs shut? Quit having kids, seriously. People are so stupid, it irritates the piss out of me. It is not hard to practice proper birth control, and while I know that sometimes you get pregnant anyways, BUT NOT SIX TIMES.
People these days.
I do not have any comments about this. I do not know what to think. I’ll have to get back to you on this. I would like to believe that Child Services made a correct decision. I hope we never hear about this lady again. I’m sure that CPS will keep her in the system and do checks to keep a close on on the child.
It’d be a different story, if say, this woman was a young teenager and it was her very first child ever and was scared of facing her over-protective parents afterwards, but this is a grown woman who has had children before. And they gave her baby -back- to her? And if she already had knowledge of the safe-haven laws, why didn’t she go to one of the designated places instead of just dumping the baby in a public washroom? Some of the people you hear about in the news never cease to amaze me.
That’s horrible. Why would they give that child back to her? It makes no sense!
WOW! What a sad story and a sorry ass mother :cynical: