When a single mother of five moved to a new town in Georgia she had no idea what she would face, completely unaware of the cruelty and injustice coming her way.
However, when COVID-19 shut down her children’s daycare back in 2020, and Melissa Henderson had to go to work, she asked her 14-year-old daughter, Linley, to babysit the four younger siblings. Linley was engaged in remote learning when her youngest brother, four-year-old Thaddeus, spied his friend outside and went over to play with him.
The mom from Georgia was not acting recklessly. Like the rest of us, she found herself in the middle of the pandemic and had to go to work. With her younger son’s daycare closed, she left her teenage daughter to care for her little brother.
However, the boy wandered away for 15 minutes, leaving mom in fear of getting jail time.
Linley found her brother soon, but the mom was already in trouble. The boy’s friend’s mom called 911. Two weeks later, Mellisa was taken to the station in front of her children.
After a heavy day of work, the exhausted mom arrived home and was utterly taken aback when she saw two police cars in the driveway.
Mellisa told Fox News, “They handcuffed me, drove me to jail, booked me, had me put in a cell. It was awful. It was embarrassing.” She added, “It makes me feel hopeless, just now feeling like you can get back to providing, get back to normal. They took away every option that I even have.”
Although this seems like a situation that was very difficult for the single mom to manage, authorities are prepared to go after the maximum penalty and lock her up in prison for a year if she is convicted. Mellisa would also have to pay a $1,000 fine if she is found guilty in the case.
Mellisa was bailed out of prison by her ex-husband.
The mom of five is not happy about how she was treated:
“I almost don’t have words for how low it made me feel. To truly feel from the bottom of my heart that if I’m anything, it’s a good mother, and everything you do is for your kids. To be stripped of that to the point where you are handcuffed in front of them.”
The police report listed all things that could have happened to her youngest son, such as “kidnapping, getting hit by a car, or being bitten by a venomous snake.”
The case is still unsolved two years later, and Mellisa’s legal help comes from David DeLugas, a lawyer who works her case pro bono.
David DeLugas cites a Georgia Supreme Court ruling from 1997, which states that charging a mom for a normal parenting decision is unconstitutional. He also states that Georgia’s child protective guidelines say children can babysit at 13 with a parent’s permission.
Watch the video below for more details:
Source: AWM
