LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- When a car came speeding around her street corner Saturday night, Wendy Barrett of Lafayette assumed it was a delivery driver running late.
What she found still troubles her.
"It was just bizarre," Barrett said of finding a 5-year-old boy driving his seemingly impaired mother and stopping on Barrett's property.
"I asked, 'Is this toddler driving your car?' She said, 'He's a good driver.' "
The mother, Holly L. Schnobrich, 24, of Lafayette, was charged Tuesday in Tippecanoe Circuit Court with two counts of Class D felony neglect and public intoxication.
The 5-year-old and a 3-year-old son also in the vehicle were taken by the Department of Child Services. Schnobrich has been in the Tippecanoe County Jail since her arrest early Sunday. She is being held on a $10,000 surety bond. According to a probable cause affidavit filed with the charges, Tippecanoe County sheriff's deputies were called Saturday night to the Saddlebrook subdivision east of Lafayette after neighbors reported finding the 5-year-old behind the wheel.
Barrett said Wednesday that the children were in their pajamas but did not appear hurt or distraught. Neither child was restrained; there were two safety seats in the back seat.
Another neighbor removed the car keys so Schnobrich -- whom Barrett said had asked them not the call police -- could not get away.
"For the safety of the children ... if that boy really had been driving, I just wonder for how long?" Barrett said. "She just didn't seem right."
Schnobrich told investigators that she would take Percocet, a prescription painkiller, to calm down when her children acted up, according to the affidavit.
Police also found a near-empty bottle of sleeping pills that Schnobrich said she bought just two days prior.
The 5-year-old told a sheriff's deputy that he had been driving but was "having a hard time because I can't reach the pedals."
Deputy prosecutor Laura Zeman said Schnobrich had pleaded guilty Aug. 21 in Tippecanoe Superior Court 6 on an unrelated charge of misdemeanor operating a vehicle while intoxicated.
The prosecutor's office filed a motion Wednesday to have Schnobrich's probation in that case revoked.
Her attorney on those charges, Brett Gibson of Lafayette, declined comment Wednesday since he had not been retained to represent her on the new charges.
No comments:
Post a Comment