It didn’t take long for the District Attorney’s officer in Long beach Mississippi to formally file charges against Police Officer Cassie Barker, for manslaughter. Barker, formerly of the Hancock County Police Department, received her pink slip last week, as well as an arrest warrant for the death of her three year-old daughter. Barker left her daughter in the back of a hot car for over four hours, while she was visiting another officer during their personal time.
“There is no logical reason to do that. It’s not an accident. She left the child in the car,” stated Chief Deputy Don Bass of Barker’s former agency. He stated that if she was going to be charged, the appropriate charge would be negligent homicide. According to reports, Barker is so distraught that she has been unable to provide any statements to police as to what happened. She was initially hospitalized immediately after the incident.
Barker’s presence at the home of Sgt Clark Ladner was suspicious at best. Relationships and sexual trists are commonplace at police departments, however, Ladner was Barker’s supervisor and the two had worked together the previous night. The incident occurred after the shift, when Barker decided to bring her daughter along with her, for what was obviously a sexual rendezvous. Ladner was suspended pending the outcome of an internal investigation. After a short suspension, Barker was terminated from her position. Realistically, neither Ladner nor Barker will ever work in law enforcement again.
Cheyenne, who was age three when she died, was initially brought up by both Barker and her father, identified as Ryan Hyer. Hyer stated to the media, “What really kills me is that you see a child killed in a car wreck, or in a home invasion, or even left in a hot car,. And the last thing you ever expect is to have an officer come knock on your door and tell you your daughter has passed away.” Hyer stated that his life has been turned upside down over his daughter’s death.
The worst part of this horrible death is that Barker had been previously disciplined for allowing her daughter to stay in a hot car in 2015. Barker had left Cheyenne unattended in a hot car and was suspended for a week, and had her probationary status as a rookie officer extended by 90 days. The state’s Department of Human Services actually removed Cheyenne from Barker’s custody temporarily over the incident. The previous offence undoubtedly played a role in the decision to indict her for Cheyenne’s death. It doesn’t appear that Cheyenne’s father was aware of the previous incident, as he told the media, “And if I would have been notified or if she lost custody of Cheyenne then, my daughter would be alive today. I wouldn’t have lost my child.” He blames Barker’s preferential treatment as an officer that prevented his finding out about the previous incident. “We would have been in jail. Records wouldn’t be expunged. My daughter would still be here.”
This case also highlights the hypocrisy of the system, who selectively choose who gets prosecuted for this crime and who does not. We, at Anonymous, reported last month about a Rome New York cop who left his son in the back of a hot car for over eight hours, while he was at home sleeping. His excuse was that he forgot to drop his son off at day care and left him in the back seat to die because it “wasn’t part of his usual routine.” His bosses at the Police Department and friends at the District Attorney’s office seemed to overlook the negligent homicide statute when reviewing the case, as despite the different circumstances, the case is ultimately the same as Cheyenne’s.
Barker surrendered herself to authorities, but drew the ire of the Police Chief and the District Attorney. Baker took hours after the arrest warrant was issued, to turn herself in. Once she did, she had a small bond of $50,000 and was basically “walked through” without ever having seen a judge, which is usually mandatory in this type of case. Fundamentally, Baker did no time in jail and received special treatment due to her officer status. As convictions for police are relatively low, it is hard to predict what a jury will do with Barker’s fate.
Sources: The Free Thought Project, Daily Mail.
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