The attack was vicious and the injuries severe. Clearly, 10-year-old Gregg Jones, who was mauled by pit bulls last week in Aurora, is a victim.
But was there a crime?
The decision of whether to criminally charge the adults who were in charge at the home where Jones lived puts prosecutors in a gray area of law, guided by their ability to prove recklessness and negligence, according to Colorado law enforcement officials.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, a career prosecutor, said that sometimes the question of whether to charge parents or caretakers boils down to whether someone should have known better. Proving that is often the difference between making a tragedy also a criminal case.
“There are some stupid things that happen that aren’t crimes, but some things cross that line and are so reckless they are a crime,” Suthers said.
Colorado has had many cases in recent years in which law enforcement officials have made those types of judgment calls.
This year, a woman was prosecuted for leaving her 2-year-old granddaughter in a hot car. The girl died of heat exposure.
In 2002, a father was convicted for giving adult cough medicine to his young children, causing the death of his 5-year-old son.
In 2001, a father who had smoked methamphetamine the day he took two 11-year-olds rafting was convicted of reckless child abuse after the raft flipped and the boys died.
A Weld County tragedy
In the pit bull attack, authorities are still contemplating whether to file criminal charges. The boy was still in critical condition.
However, in the tiny Weld County town of Kersey last summer, law-enforcement officials ultimately decided that although they had a heart-rending death of a 4-year-old, they did not have a crime.
As his mother cared for three other children in August, young Sam Cockroft left the family’s house to ride an all-terrain vehicle. Nicole Cockroft heard him leave but didn’t follow him because he had ridden the small ATV many times before, said Weld County Sheriff John Cooke.
Two days later, searchers found the child’s body on a tree branch hanging over the river about 4 miles from his family’s 60-year-old dairy farm.
“They (his parents) taught him to ride it,” said Cooke, who declined to pursue charges against Sam’s parents.
Many factors played into Cooke’s decision not to make the tragedy a criminal case.
“We looked at the entire situation,” he said. “These are hardworking, decent people who have lived 20 to 30 feet away from the river for many years.
“If the parents weren’t at home at all and left a 4-year-old all by himself, we might have looked at things differently.”
Kersey Mayor Jerrold Bre t hauer said the reason approximately 300 neighbors helped look for Sam was they knew and respected the Cockroft family.
“They were an asset to the community and great people,” Brethauer said.
To charge or not to?
According to Colorado law, a person has committed child abuse if that person directly injures a child, or “permits a child to be unreasonably placed in a situation that poses a threat of injury to the child’s life or health.”
Miles Madorin, staff attorney for the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council, said there really is no distinct line in determining whether a violation of the law has occurred.
“Some things are fairly regularly prosecuted – leaving a child in a car all day long in the heat and the child dies,” Madorin said. Similarly, parents who leave young children alone at night are routinely prosecuted if the children die in a fire or meet some other tragic end.
“As you get less obvious situations, the question becomes whether it’s unreasonable to leave a child in the situation,” Madorin said.
Stu VanMeveren, who was a district attorney in the Fort Collins area for 32 years, said district attorneys have always struggled with these decisions. They look at the facts and the law and make a decision, he said.
“Sometimes you just have to file cases and let the process work and let the courts and juries decide these issues,” he said.
Staff writer Alicia Caldwell can be reached at 303-820-1930 or acaldwell@denverpost.com.
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com.
