Woman gets probation for endangering grandson

A Miller County woman whose 3-year-old grandson was found wandering along a busy highway clad only in a diaper was sentenced Monday to five years of probation for child endangerment.

Trudy Dooley, 51, was supposed to be watching the boy May 4, 2014, when a couple noticed him sitting on the side of Highway 71 south at about 10 a.m., according to a probable cause affidavit used to create the following account. The couple stopped and asked the little boy where he lived.

The woman who picked up the child told a Miller County Sheriff's Office investigator the boy pointed to a nearby house. The woman told detectives she carried the boy to the house and that when she got close to the front door, a man came out yelling and took the child away. The couple then drove to a nearby convenience store and dialed 911.

When deputies went to the house that morning, their knocks went unanswered. Dooley later admitted she was inside but feared she would be arrested if she opened the door.

That afternoon, a Miller County Sheriff's Office investigator and a caseworker with Arkansas Department of Child and Family Services went to the house. Dooley attempted to convince them that the boy with her was not the one found that morning in a diaper alone on a busy roadway.

When the woman who carried the baby home was shown a cellphone photo of the child in Dooley's care, she said, "That's him, 100 percent," according to the affidavit.

Dooley eventually admitted she fell asleep while watching the boy for her daughter, who was at work. Dooley underwent a drug test at the request of DCFS and tested positive for marijuana, methamphetamine, amphetamine and benzodiazepenes. Drugs classified as benzodiazepenes include Valium and Xanax, for example. The man, Dooley's former boyfriend, tested positive for the same drugs as Dooley.

Dooley's daughter tested negative for illicit or prescription drugs. She agreed not to leave her son in Dooley's care as part of a plan she entered with DCFS, which allowed her to maintain custody of her son.

As a condition of her probation, Dooley was ordered not to be alone with her grandchild for one year. If, while on probation, she continues to test positively for mind-altering or illegal substances, the contact-with-supervision-only condition could be extended, or the court could revoke Dooley's probation and send her to prison.

In addition to the five-year term of probation, Dooley was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and court costs.

 

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