Dave over at NixGuy has the story.
In 2000, Clermont County Prosecutor Don White prosecuted Jerry Bittner and his wife Bonnie Bittner for child endangerment and involuntary manslaughter. Here are the facts as taken from Ohio v. Jerry Bittner.
On June 23, 1998, Jerry Bittner, his wife Bonnie, their infant daughter Serena Bittner, Jerry’s mother Joan Bittner, Jerry’s two children from a previous relationship, and Bonnie’s four children all lived in Joan’s trailer in Goshen Township.
As you can surmise from hearing that so many people lived together in a trailer, THEY WERE POOR. Jerry was working two jobs to support his family.
That afternoon, Bonnie and the children took Joan to work, went to a hardware store, and returned to the trailer at about 5 p.m.
At 6:30 p.m., Jerry came home from work to see his children before leaving for his second job. Not seeing Serena, he inquired as to her whereabouts.
It was then discovered that Serena had been left in the van in the driveway.
The temperature that day was eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit.
Except for the front passenger window which was opened one to two inches, all the other windows were closed.
Serena was very hot, sweaty, clammy, and pale. She was “whizzing real bad” and “breathing hard.” To cool her off, Jerry had Serena and Bonnie take a lukewarm bath together. According to Jerry, following the bath, Serena was no longer whizzing and sweating, showed no signs of distress, and drank a bottle of formula.
…
At about 2 a.m., Serena started shaking and stopped breathing. Jerry began performing CPR on Serena, which prompted her to throw up formula, and 911 was called.
…
Don White sought and received a one count indictment of Jerry in March 2000 on one count of involuntary manslaughter in violation of R.C. 2903.04(A) and one count of child endangering in violation of R.C. 2919.22(A). Bonnie was indicted on the same charges. (source)
Jerry took the case to a jury trial. At the conclusion of his jury trial, Jerry was convicted as charged. He was sentenced to a one-year prison term for the child endangering conviction and to a four-year prison term for the involuntary manslaughter conviction.
It seems to me like Nate Livingston is right, there is no justice in Clermont County.
