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Charges dropped against mother whose son died in water-filled hole

8 years 5 months 2 days ago Monday, October 26 2015 Oct 26, 2015 October 26, 2015 6:47 PM October 26, 2015 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - A mother arrested after her child drowned in a water-filled hole back in December has been cleared of all charges.

The East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore said the mother, 26-year-old Brittni Clark's, was not at fault in the death of her four-year-old son. Jassiah Clark's body was found in December 22, 2014, just a few days before Christmas. Initially, Clark was charged with negligent homicide. Investigators said she also lied about her son's whereabouts when he went missing.

Baton Rouge Police first said Clark had a pattern of child neglect leading up to Jassiah's death.  After reviewing all of the information pertaining to the case, the district attorney says otherwise.

"We found that there was no causal connection between the mom's potential negligence and the son's death," said District Attorney Hillar Moore. "Did it significantly cause (her) son's death? The answer's no."

Clark's attorney, Lewis Unglesby, said although Clark's charges have been dropped, he's still moving forward with a suit against the city. At the time, there were no signs or barricades posted around or near the hole that claimed the life of the boy.

"It was poorly constructed, poorly filled, and no one's really disputing the fact that it was an all-together gigantic foul up," said Unglesby as he describes the hole. "They're just arguing what person wants to take responsibility for it."

DA Moore said he believes the home was situated about 20 feet from where the water-filled hole was located.

"Its depth was around eight feet, so had you and I fallen in the hole, the same thing would have happened to either one of us," said Moore.

Unglesby said the suit could take up to a year to resolve his legal action against the city. Moore also said they have no proof of the allegations Clark faced as a "unfit" mother.

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