Child abduction: Parents say school is liableAuthor(s): Paul MarcotteSource: ABA Journal, Vol. 72, No. 5 (May 1, 1986), p. 28Published by: American Bar AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20758737 .

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Parents and their kidnapped baby are reunited in Texas. Between 4,000 and 20,000 children each year are abducted by unknown persons.

Child abduction Parents say school is liable

Typifying a recent trend, the parents of a 7-year-old Seattle-area girl are suing a

school district, bus company, and bus driver for $5 million, claiming their negli gence contributed to the child's abduc tion and murder.

Lea Sue Kimble disappeared in 1983 after allegedly being dropped off by a school bus driver approximately a mile from her home in Bothell, Wash., near

Seattle. Her body was located this March in a shallow grave near Ellensburg in eastern Washington.

An autopsy indicated she was mur dered in September 1983, soon after she was abducted. No suspects have been

arrested.

In Kimble v. Northshore School Dis trict No. 417, 86-2-01653-8, Duane and Susan Kimble are seeking damages for the wrongful death of their daughter as well as for their own emotional distress. The suit is pending in King County Supe rior Court.

"It was foreseeable that in dropping off a child that far from home, harm could come to her," said Anthony Urie, the Kimbles' lawyer. "All kinds of danger and harm could occur. Unfortunately, the worst did happen." Furthermore, he

alleged, Lea Sue had been picked up close to home and her parents were led to

believe she would be dropped off at the same place.

An attorney representing the defend ants declined to return several phone calls made to his office.

There are varying estimates that be tween 4,000 and 20,000 children each year are abducted by unknown persons,

according to Barbara Chapman, a

spokesman for the National Center for

Missing and Exploited Children. Lawyers say the Kimble case typifies a

new willingness by crime victims and their relatives to sue third parties for

failing to protect victims. Increasingly during the past three

years, schools have been sued on claims of failing to protect children, according to

George Nicholson, executive director of the National School Safety Center in Sacramento, Calif. In April, the center

published a legal guide, School Crime and Violence: Victims' Rights.

Landlords, innkeepers, and public agencies are also increasingly being sued for failing to protect crime victims, ac

cording to Frank Carrington, director of the Victims Assistance Legal Organiza tion, in Virginia Beach, Va. "This is one of the fastest growing areas of law," said

Carrington. "There is no question in my mind that there is a definite trend toward

finding liability." Moreover, victims are actively seeking

legislation to give them legal rights, ac

cording to John Stein, a spokesman for the National Organization for Victim

Assistance. ?Paul Marcotte

Homebodies

Sentencing system gains favor

Judge Nicholas Colabella of the West chester County Court in White Plains, N.Y., felt that probation for some first time drunken-driving offenders was too lenient, but jail was too harsh. So last

October, he sentenced them to serve time at home.

"Those people were not the classic criminals," said Colabella of the 15 peo ple he has sentenced to home confine ment. "I was trying to find a middle

ground." As concern over jail and prison over

crowding continues and costs for incar

ceration increase, some judges, correc

tions officials and legislators support home detention as a sentencing alterna

tive for some offenders. Under home detention, sometimes called house arrest,

generally nonviolent offenders are con

fined to their homes in lieu of parole or a

prison sentence.

In most cases the offender is allowed to

go to work, shop for groceries, seek medical attention and attend religious services. But activities such as visiting friends and going to movies are banned.

Most detainees must report to probation officials. Many may get surprise visits from corrections officials to ensure that the terms of confinement are being met. In extreme cases, such as the sentencing of a Los Angeles draft resister last sum mer, the offender cannot leave the home at all.

"Judges and probation officials are

thinking about it more and more," said Mark Corrigan, director of the National Institute for Sentencing Alternatives at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. Corrigan served as New York's deputy director of corrections for 10 years.

Prison overcrowding Prison overcrowding has encouraged

about 40 jurisdictions to try home deten tion, said Joan Petersilia, senior research

er in the criminal justice department at the Rand Corp. in Santa Monica, Calif. The idea has gained momentum in the last three years, said Petersilia, who is

studying techniques states are using to cope with overcrowding.

The Eastern District Court of New York developed procedures for home de tention in November. "Home detention is intended to be used as an alternative to

imprisonment," and it will be used selec

tively, the procedures state. Of the of

28 ABA Journal, The Lawyer's Magazine

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