{"id":107869,"date":"2024-11-16T00:04:17","date_gmt":"2024-11-16T00:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/mom-arrested-after-son-was-reported-walking-alone\/"},"modified":"2024-11-16T00:04:17","modified_gmt":"2024-11-16T00:04:17","slug":"mom-arrested-after-son-was-reported-walking-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/mom-arrested-after-son-was-reported-walking-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"Mom arrested after son was reported walking alone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Courtesy of Fannin County Sheriff’s Office<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(FANNIN COUNTY, Ga.) — A mom in Georgia is speaking out about being arrested for reckless conduct after her then-10-year-old son was found walking alone.<\/p>\n

Brittany Patterson, 41, was arrested by deputies on Oct. 30 after a witness reported “a juvenile in the roadway” who had gone into and left a nearby Dollar General store, according to a Fannin County Sheriff’s Office report.<\/p>\n

Patterson’s son, Soren, now 11, was later found by deputies around one mile from the family’s home. Patterson had left Soren to take another one of her children to a doctor’s appointment and didn’t report him missing, according to the report.<\/p>\n

In the state, neglect by a parent can be defined as a “failure to provide a child with adequate supervision necessary for such child’s well-being,” according to a guideline.<\/p>\n

Patterson told <\/span>ABC News’ Andrea Fujii<\/a> in an interview Friday that she had been annoyed Soren didn’t tell her where he was going, but didn’t think he was in any danger.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I wasn’t panicking or concerned because it’s just a short walk from our house. He knows how to get home,” Patterson said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In bodycam footage released by the sheriff’s office, Patterson can be seen asking a deputy, “What am I under arrest for?”<\/p>\n

“For reckless endangerment,” the deputy replied.<\/p>\n

“And how was I recklessly endangering my child?” Patterson asked, before another deputy responded, “We’re not talking about it.”<\/p>\n

The deputies then handcuffed the mom.<\/p>\n

During the arrest, Patterson also said to one of the deputies, “Last time I checked, it wasn’t illegal for a kid to walk to the store.”<\/p>\n

But the deputy replied, “It is when they’re 10 years old.”<\/p>\n

The arrest warrant claimed Patterson “willingly and knowingly did endanger the bodily safety of her juvenile son.”<\/p>\n

In an interview with ABC News, Patterson’s lawyer David Delugas questioned the charge she is facing.<\/p>\n

“Our criminal justice system is built on the fact that you did something or you were negligent. You did something criminally negligent. So what is it she did?” DeLugas said.<\/p>\n

Authorities said they would drop the charge against Patterson if she signs a safety plan that involves the use of a GPS tracker on her son’s phone but Patterson told ABC News she is refusing to sign it.<\/p>\n

“I just felt like I couldn’t sign that and that in doing so, would be agreeing that there was something unsafe about my home or something unsafe about my parental decisions and I just don’t believe that,” Patterson said.<\/p>\n

Patterson, who is currently out on bail, faces up to 1 year in jail with the reckless conduct charge.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of Fannin County Sheriff’s Office (FANNIN COUNTY, Ga.) — A mom in Georgia is speaking out about being arrested for reckless conduct after her then-10-year-old son was found walking alone. Brittany Patterson, 41, was arrested by deputies on Oct. 30 after a witness reported “a juvenile in the roadway”Read More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,31,2],"tags":[273,271,276,274,270,123,275,133,124,272,102,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107869"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}