Nearly two years after the Court of Appeals found that a custodial parent could be held criminally responsible for kidnapping his or her own child, a trial judge in Manhattan has upheld charges against a woman who locked her five children in a room with her for 80 minutes.
Criminal Court Judge Steven Statsinger (See Profile), acknowledging that custodial parents generally have a right to control or restrain their children’s movements, said that in this case the mother’s behavior was so “bizarre and irrational” and “unconnected to any legitimate parental goal” as to warrant charges of endangering and unlawful imprisonment.
