Subject:  Re: 2 Detroit 911 employees charged |
Author:
Chris
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Date Posted: 06/ 8/06 5:30pm
In reply to:
Diane
's message, "2 Detroit 911 employees charged" on 06/ 8/06 2:50pm
2 emergency dispatchers charged in Mich.
Wed Jun 7
DETROIT - Two 911 operators who authorities say wrongly assumed it was a prank when a 5-year-old boy called to report that his mother had collapsed have been charged with neglect of duty.
By the time an officer arrived, the boy's 46-year-old mother was dead.
"I understand they get a quite a few crank calls, but you have to take it seriously when someone calls 911," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said Wednesday in announcing charges against Sharon Nichols, 43, and Terri Sutton, 47.
They could get a year in jail if convicted of the misdemeanor.
Worthy said the mother, Sherrill Turner, might be alive today had the dispatchers done their jobs correctly.
Robert Turner, now 6, called 911 twice on Feb. 20 to report that his mother had collapsed and needed medical care, but "neither operator treated this as an emergency," the prosecutor said.
No police car was sent after Nichols took the first call. The boy called again three hours later, and Sutton reacted by sending police out to discipline the child and inform the parent that the youngster was dialing 911, Worthy said.
Kimberly Harris, president of the dispatchers' union, called the charges "absolutely ludicrous" and said the operators could not hear the boy's call well because they use antiquated headsets.
"If the operators were able to hear, then they would have heard what the little boy said, and he would have received the proper units," she said.
She said tapes of the call released to the media were enhanced and did not contain background noise.
Police spokesman James Tate said he could not comment on the headset allegation because of pending litigation against the city.
Attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who defended assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian, has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city on behalf of the family. Fieger said Robert's mother, who had an enlarged heart, would have survived if help had been sent immediately.
Disciplinary action against the operators was pending and could range from suspension without pay to dismissal, police said.
The prosecutor refused to say if the two should have been fired, but added, "They should not be taking 911 calls."
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