A Georgia mom arrested after her 10-year-old son took a solo walk to a store about a mile from home in rural Georgia has vowed to fight the charges in a case that has prompted confusion and criticism from experts and parental rights activists.
Body camera footage from Fannin County Sheriff’s Office shows Brittany Patterson, then 41, being confronted and arrested at home on Oct. 30 by deputies hours after a bystander reported seeing her son in public alone.
Deputies returned the boy, who was unharmed, home. Then, they came back several hours later to arrest Patterson.
“Last time I checked it wasn’t illegal for a kid to walk to the store,” Patterson said in the footage.
“It is when they’re 10 years old,” replied Deputy Kaylee Robertson said. (Patterson’s arrest warrant and a report written by Robertson say that the root of the charge was that Patterson didn’t know where her son was and failed to report him as missing to authorities before leaving the home.)
The case is a relatively rare example of law enforcement in Georgia intervening with criminal charges in a case where a child wasn’t hurt and in which many reasonable parents would behave the exact same way, said Emma Hetherington, a law professor at the University of Georgia and the director of the school’s Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic.
Brittany Patterson describes what happened before her arrest
Patterson had to take one of her older children to a medical appointment on…
