... lawful gun-owners must register with the state Criminal Records Bureau, but women can abandon new-borns in toilets and not be punished.
"She's suffered enough..."
===================================
No Jail for Mother Who Left Newborn in Toilet
A Maine woman who gave birth in a bathroom stall at Logan Airport, then left her newborn son in a toilet covered with tissue to board a flight to London to see her boyfriend, will not go to jail for the crime.
In an anticlimactic end to a shocking case, Kelly Angell admitted in East Boston District Court yesterday that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict her of two crimes: abandoning a child under the age of 10 and recklessly permitting that child to be harmed.
As a result, Judge Dominic J.F. Russo sentenced Angell, 20, a Rite Aid clerk from Portland, Maine, to serve 17 months in jail but suspended the punishment for two years if Angell stays out of trouble. Russo also ordered her to continue psychological counseling.
Branding Angell with responsibility for a ''tragic situation,'' Suffolk prosecutor David Deakin had requested she serve 18 months behind bars.
Though Angell did not admit any wrongdoing, Jim Borghesani, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney's office, said the plea fell short of a confession.
''She never said the words, `I'm guilty,''' Borghesani said. ''She's basically saying, `The Commonwealth has sufficient facts to prove me guilty.' It's a conviction. She was convicted.''
According to televised reports from the courtroom, defense lawyer Anthony J. Lociatto told the judge that Angell ''needs the support of her family. She needs the support of her therapist to be able to continue with the productive life she has always led.''
Reached by phone yesterday evening at their South Portland home, Angell's parents, Mark and Lee Angell, declined to speak to a reporter because they are fighting for custody of their 4-month-old grandson, Benjamin Angell-Clifton. State Department of Social Services spokeswoman Carol Yelverton said a hearing on the matter is scheduled for Nov. 28 in Boston Juvenile Court.
The baby has been with a foster family in Massachusetts since shortly after his birth, Yelverton said. ''He is thriving. We are taking very good care of him.''
The incident happened May 26 as Angell waited for a London-bound flight to tell her boyfriend, Graeme Clifton, about her pregnancy, authorities said; Angell apparently had kept it a secret. At the airport, prosecutors said, Angell went into labor, headed to the women's bathroom, delivered the child, then put it in the toilet.
''The defendant explained that after trying to get the baby to breathe by patting its back and cleaning its mouth, she then cut the umbilical cord with her fingernail and placed the baby back in the toilet,'' prosecutor David Deakin told the judge.
''The defendant then placed toilet paper over the baby and left the bathroom.'' Police said a cleaning woman found the infant and cried for help, leading two doctors who happened to be in the terminal to give emergency care to the child.
As security officers searched for the infant's mother, they noticed Angell in line for a flight, police said. Boarding pass in hand, the young woman was wearing blood-stained jeans and was fumbling with a bottle of pain medicine, police said.
Angell at first said she was not the mother and could not miss her flight, but later claimed she thought her baby was stillborn, despite the fact that witnesses said they heard ''unmistakeable'' baby cries while Angell was in the bathroom.
Described by friends and neighbors as a bright, quiet girl who won a partial scholarship to Wentworth Institute of Technology, Angell met Clifton last summer when they worked together at a Saco, Maine, amusement park. Clifton, a 21-year-old British student at the University of Anglia, flew to Boston in May for Angell's arraignment.
After undergoing a 20-day psychiatric evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital, during which she saw her infant son at least once, Angell was released in May on $2,500 bail.
This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 9/27/2000.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"She's suffered enough..."
===================================
No Jail for Mother Who Left Newborn in Toilet
A Maine woman who gave birth in a bathroom stall at Logan Airport, then left her newborn son in a toilet covered with tissue to board a flight to London to see her boyfriend, will not go to jail for the crime.
In an anticlimactic end to a shocking case, Kelly Angell admitted in East Boston District Court yesterday that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict her of two crimes: abandoning a child under the age of 10 and recklessly permitting that child to be harmed.
As a result, Judge Dominic J.F. Russo sentenced Angell, 20, a Rite Aid clerk from Portland, Maine, to serve 17 months in jail but suspended the punishment for two years if Angell stays out of trouble. Russo also ordered her to continue psychological counseling.
Branding Angell with responsibility for a ''tragic situation,'' Suffolk prosecutor David Deakin had requested she serve 18 months behind bars.
Though Angell did not admit any wrongdoing, Jim Borghesani, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney's office, said the plea fell short of a confession.
''She never said the words, `I'm guilty,''' Borghesani said. ''She's basically saying, `The Commonwealth has sufficient facts to prove me guilty.' It's a conviction. She was convicted.''
According to televised reports from the courtroom, defense lawyer Anthony J. Lociatto told the judge that Angell ''needs the support of her family. She needs the support of her therapist to be able to continue with the productive life she has always led.''
Reached by phone yesterday evening at their South Portland home, Angell's parents, Mark and Lee Angell, declined to speak to a reporter because they are fighting for custody of their 4-month-old grandson, Benjamin Angell-Clifton. State Department of Social Services spokeswoman Carol Yelverton said a hearing on the matter is scheduled for Nov. 28 in Boston Juvenile Court.
The baby has been with a foster family in Massachusetts since shortly after his birth, Yelverton said. ''He is thriving. We are taking very good care of him.''
The incident happened May 26 as Angell waited for a London-bound flight to tell her boyfriend, Graeme Clifton, about her pregnancy, authorities said; Angell apparently had kept it a secret. At the airport, prosecutors said, Angell went into labor, headed to the women's bathroom, delivered the child, then put it in the toilet.
''The defendant explained that after trying to get the baby to breathe by patting its back and cleaning its mouth, she then cut the umbilical cord with her fingernail and placed the baby back in the toilet,'' prosecutor David Deakin told the judge.
''The defendant then placed toilet paper over the baby and left the bathroom.'' Police said a cleaning woman found the infant and cried for help, leading two doctors who happened to be in the terminal to give emergency care to the child.
As security officers searched for the infant's mother, they noticed Angell in line for a flight, police said. Boarding pass in hand, the young woman was wearing blood-stained jeans and was fumbling with a bottle of pain medicine, police said.
Angell at first said she was not the mother and could not miss her flight, but later claimed she thought her baby was stillborn, despite the fact that witnesses said they heard ''unmistakeable'' baby cries while Angell was in the bathroom.
Described by friends and neighbors as a bright, quiet girl who won a partial scholarship to Wentworth Institute of Technology, Angell met Clifton last summer when they worked together at a Saco, Maine, amusement park. Clifton, a 21-year-old British student at the University of Anglia, flew to Boston in May for Angell's arraignment.
After undergoing a 20-day psychiatric evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital, during which she saw her infant son at least once, Angell was released in May on $2,500 bail.
This story ran on page B1 of the Boston Globe on 9/27/2000.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
