I see that Circuit Judge John Langston granted the prosecution's request to delay for months the negligent-homicide case against suspended Circuit judge Wade Naramore of Garland County.
Nearly a year has passed since Naramore, 36, found his 17-month-old son Thomas unresponsive in the back seat of the car. That's where Thomas was left alone in the summer heat after Naramore forgot to drop him at day care.
Forgetting children in hot vehicles has become a tragic, yet all too familiar, occurrence across the nation. It's also a preventable one I've suggested could be remedied immediately with child safety seats linked to wireless alarms in ignition systems.
Virtually the same catastrophe occurred a few years back in Northwest Arkansas when another father forgot to drop his child at day care when he went to work. It happens today nationally at an incredible rate of one every nine days.
Naramore's trial had been set for June 14-17. But the county's deputy prosecutor argued last week that he needed more time to prepare after the lead prosecutor was called away.
It's not as if Naramore already hadn't been agonizing over his son's death and in legal jeopardy for a long while. He was charged with the misdemeanor on Feb. 11, some seven months after his son's death on July 24, 2015.
Naramore's attorney, Erin Cassinelli, strongly and repeatedly disagreed, saying it wasn't the defense's problem that internal reshuffling became necessary with the prosecution, or that video evidence from a courthouse camera where Naramore had parked that fateful day remained inaccessible at the Hot Springs Police Department. She maintained a delay at this point in Naramore's trial (after suffering much too long) was unnecessary and only prolonged any form of closure he and his family have sought.
The news story by reporter Jeannie Roberts said Deputy Prosecutor Thomas Young argued to the court that the recent departure of the original prosecutor had put him in a tough position to prepare for trial by June 14. The felony cases, some of which involve life sentences, already piled on Young's plate (and set for July trials) took precedence over a misdemeanor case like Naramore's.
But Cassinelli responded: "The Naramores have a life sentence. They lost a son."
While conceding a timely trial as mutually agreed upon was a "big concern," Judge Langston said he didn't believe the court had "allowed ourselves enough time to try this case." Well, after all, he is the decider.
And so the Naramores, their family and those who care for them must continue waiting likely until the fall to hash out a pretty much undisputed case more than a year later. Hardly speedy in anyone's book.
No one knows more painfully than Wade Naramore the gut-grabbing grief he will experience until he draws his final breath in this troubled world.
Naramore is far from alone. The 11th child this year was found dead of heatstroke in Baton Rouge just last week. The 8-month-old baby girl reportedly was left inside the superheated car for two hours outside her day care. The circumstances were similar to what happened in Hot Springs and in most of these tragedies.
The organization Kids-AndCars.org said there's been a 275 percent increase in the number of child/vehicle heatstroke deaths this spring and it's not summer yet.
"This can and does happen to the most loving, responsible and attentive parents, "said Janette Fennell, who heads the group. "No one is immune." Since 1990, some 750 children have died of heatstroke in vehicles, the organization says.
During the one-hour hearing in front of Langston, Roberts wrote, a red-faced Naramore sat cross-legged with eyes watery from unshed tears, sometimes tapping his fingers on the table or leaning forward with his head in his hands.
Attempting to prove just how negligent this clearly remorseful father was and punish him with jail time and/or a fine seems largely irrelevant and some would say cruel when all is said and done in this case. As I've said, I suspect there's plenty of self-inflicted and incriminating mental and emotional punishment daily for this judge and his family.
Cassinelli aptly expressed the truth of the matter by saying her client and all around him who loved Thomas already are serving a life sentence for his catastrophic error and forgetfulness.
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected].
Editorial on 06/12/2016