New law not safe from abuse

OMAHA -- Nebraska’s vaguely worded safe-haven law has already been exposed as ripe for abuse by allowing kids as old as 18 to be abandoned by their parents, but some officials now fear an influx of abandoned kids from other states.

That fear was realized Tuesday afternoon, when a 14-year-old Iowa girl was brought across the Missouri River and left at an Omaha hospital.

The teenager left Tuesday at Creighton University Medical Center -- the 17th child abandoned since Sept. 13 -- came from Council Bluffs, Iowa, which sits just east across the river from Nebraska’s largest city.

“It really concerns me that (people from) other states are possibly going to be leaving their children here,” said state Sen. Arnie Stuthman of Platte Center, who introduced the bill that was the basis for the legislation.

The law, in its entirety, states only: “No person shall be prosecuted for any crime based solely upon the act of leaving a child in the custody of an employee on duty at a hospital licensed by the State of Nebraska. The hospital shall promptly contact appropriate authorities to take custody of the child.”

Problem is, some have taken the word “child” in the law to mean “minor,” which in Nebraska includes anyone under the age of 19. Others have taken the common law definition, which includes those under age 14.

And the law doesn’t preclude people from out of state from leaving their children in Nebraska, which leaves some uncertainty about its current reach.

Most other safe haven laws are catered to helping infants -- which is what Stuthman wanted.

But senators who pushed for the law’s expansion have said they intended to help a broader age range, such as toddlers or other young children. They didn’t, however, expect parents to drop off older children who, they said, are more likely to escape a dangerous situation.

While the possibility of unruly teenagers being left came up in debate, Stuthman doesn’t remember any mention of children from out of state being left.

“We were just concerned about the child who could be drastically harmed,” he said.

Nebraska lawmakers aren’t scheduled to convene again until January, but they already are re-examining the 47-word law they passed in the spring.

The number of children left will continue to climb, including the possibility of seeing children left by desperate parents pushed to the brink by the souring economy, said child advocate Kathy Bigsby Moore. She pointed to research that links economic stress and other risk factors for children.

“My main hope is that this Iowa case doesn’t distract policy-makers from the real issue, which is that Nebraska children and families need an avenue for obtaining services and respite for very difficult family situations,” said Moore, who is executive director of Voices for Children in Nebraska.

Todd Landry, director of the Nebraska’s Division of Children and Family Services, said the safe-haven law’s legal protections might not prevent prosecution in the case of the Iowa girl. Whoever abandoned the 14-year-old might be prosecuted in Iowa if a different law, such as child neglect, can be applied to this situation.

An investigation is ongoing, Landry said Wednesday. He declined to offer details including who left the child and under what circumstances.

Omaha attorney K.C. Engdahl said when a criminal act is committed, its prosecution -- or in this case absolution -- is tied to the state in which the crime was committed.

What makes a cross-the-border safe-haven case more complicated is the fact a child is involved, he said in explaining how Iowa could have any interest in the case.

“The state always has a reason to be involved when the best interest of minor children are implicated or involved in any way,” he said.

Landry said several possibilities came up before the bill was passed about how the law might be used, including the potential of attracting drop-offs from other states. The latter came up in informal discussions and not during open session involving the whole Legislature, he said.

He stressed the law needs to be changed, but stopped short of weighing in on whether a special session is needed to do it.

Gov. Dave Heineman has not ruled out calling a special session of the Legislature to fix the law, but he has been reluctant to do so.

“The governor remains hopeful that a special session won’t be needed, but this issue must be addressed immediately at the beginning of the next session,” Heineman’s spokeswoman Jen Rae Hein said Wednesday.

Special sessions are rare.

Lawmakers were called into special session in 2001 and 2002 to help balance the state budget. They had another special session in 2002 to change the law on how the death penalty is meted out.

Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, speaker of the Legislature, said he hasn’t heard any calls from senators for a special session.

Flood said when the law is revised, he’d like to see it pertain only to Nebraska residents, but he had no details about how that might be done.

The Legislature’s Judiciary and Health and Human Services committees plan to hold a joint public hearing on the safe-haven law on Nov. 13.

In Nebraska, several of the parents or guardians who have left children cited uncontrollable behavioral problems as reasons for using the law. An out-of-work widower who left nine of his 10 children said he simply felt overwhelmed by his responsibilities.

That man, Gary Staton, was in court Wednesday attempting to secure state-supervised visitation.