Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.A Nebraska mom feels hurt, humiliated and wary — and she blames the authorities she called when she feared her 2-year-old son could be drowning.
Lancaster County sheriff's deputies cited Paula Hart, 29, and Joshua Phillips, 31, with child neglect after the two spent some terror-filled minutes on Sunday searching for their son, Collin, at Bluestem Lake, south of Lincoln.
Hart on Tuesday recalled Phillips telling deputies at the time, “We called you for help and this is what you give us?”
Phillips, who sells professional broadcast equipment, and Hart, a trained accountant and stay-at-home mom, have four children: Bryce, 10, Drake, 6, Collin, 2, and Brooklyn, 1. The family lives in Hampton, Neb.
The family arrived at the lake about 5:30 p.m. The burgers were on the grill for an impromptu Sunday picnic and the couple's boys had their fishing poles along.
Then 6-year-old Drake turned to his mom: “I see Collin swimming in the lake.”
“We can't forget how we felt,” Hart said, recalling the panic. “We thought we would find our baby floating in the water, you know?”
Hart said she and Phillips scanned the picnic area, then yelled for people nearby to call police as they ran for the water, both diving in.
“We screamed hysterically for nearby boats to come in close to scan the water,” she said. “After about seven, eight minutes, we knew he wasn't out there, the water was too cold.”
Once out of the water, Phillips sprinted up the hill toward the road, Hart said. Some lake visitors who heard the commotion had driven over to investigate. Hart said the visitors spotted Collin on the dirt road at the same time Phillips scooped up his son.
“We should have looked behind us instead of jumping in the water,” Hart said, “but we thought we'd have time to save him if he was in there. We were frantic.”
The mom estimates the entire scene played out in a matter of minutes.
Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner confirmed that the boy was safe and sound in his parents' arms when his deputies arrived. But a witness told deputies he found the boy about half a mile from where he was last seen and only 200 feet from a road.
Wagner called it a case of neglect: “They were not watching a 2-year-old near a body of water.”
“We've already seen one drowning this year at a Lancaster County lake because a child was unattended,” he said.
On Mother's Day, a 10-year-old Lincoln girl disappeared at Pawnee Lake. Her body was later found in the water.
But Hart said there was no neglect. She said the distance and time have been exaggerated. A small hill separated the family's picnic spot from the area, preventing them from seeing Collin, whom she estimated had gone 200 to 500 feet away from them.
It's something that could happen to anyone, she said.
“In the future, I don't know what to do,” she said. “I always thought the police are who you called to help you, that's what I teach my kids, but then to see the police do that.”
Wagner would not offer any other information on the incident, saying he wouldn't debate the case before it goes to court.
Contact the writer:
402-444-3131, sam.womack@owh.com
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