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Homeless Mom Pleads Guilty in Wrong-School Case
Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 6:33 am
By: Denise Stewart, BlackAmericaWeb.com
A Bridgeport, Connecticut woman will spend five years in jail, have five years of probation and pay restitution after pleading guilty last week to first-degree larceny by sending her child to a school in a district where she did not have residence.
Tanya McDowell, 34, entered the plea, not because she agreed with the charges, but because she felt she would be convicted if the case went to trial and face a longer period behind bars, said Darnell Crosland, her lawyer.
McDowell was homeless in 2011 when she sent her five-year-old son to school in a district where his baby sitter lived in Norwalk, Connecticut. Shortly after facing the charges over schooling for her child, McDowell was arrested and charged with selling drugs to an undercover police officer.
Authorities taped McDowell six times selling drugs to undercover officers, Crosland said. She is set to be sentenced next month on the drug charges, and that time will run concurrently with time from her plea, he said.
"She did not agree with the larceny charges, but once she had the drug charges, it was difficult legally to handle the two situations separately," Crosland told BlackAmericaWeb.com. It was also difficult for McDowell to gain support on the school larceny after the drug charges entered the picture, he said.
McDowell was taped selling small amounts of drugs, Crosland said.
"The total value of the drugs she sold was not more than $500," he said. "She wasn't getting rich and living a life of luxury."
Crosland, who also is on the board of directors for a Connecticut homeless shelter, said many homeless people often have either battled a drug addiction or have sold drugs to get by.
McDowell had been to rehabilitation for drug addiction, but had clean drug tests for several months prior to her arrest, he said.
She still, however, wrestled with finding stable housing.
In September 2010, McDowell <span style="font-weight: bold">enrolled her five-year-old son in the Norwalk school system, using the address of the child's babysitter. She was arrested and charged in April 2011.
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<span style="font-weight: bold">McDowell was charged with first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny after police said she lied about living in a Roodner Court apartment, leased through the Norwalk Housing Authority to her friend and babysitter, Ana Marques.</span>
It was during an eviction hearing for Marques that McDowell testified that she didn’t live in the apartment, but instead lived nearby in Bridgeport. Her son attended Brookside Elementary School, but withdrew from the school in January after the hearing, Crosland said.
During the investigation, McDowell explained she could only stay at the residence in Bridgeport at night and had to leave during the day. She also said she sometimes slept at the Norwalk Emergency Shelter and claims to occasionally sleep in her car.
Her arrest came shortly after a similar incidence in Akron, Ohio where another African-American mother was arrested in connection with enrolling her children in an incorrect school zone.
Kelley Williams-Bolar was sentenced to 10 days in jail earlier in 2011 after using her father’s address to enroll her two girls in a suburban school system.
Unlike Williams-Bolar, in McDowell's case, she removed her son from Brookside Elementary School when it was discovered that the two did not live in the Norwalk School District.
Officials with the Connecticut NAACP said other students had been discovered out of zone in that school system, but had not been arrested, as in McDowell's case.
Crosland, who was brought onto McDowell's case by the NAACP, said it will be interesting to see how cases similar to McDowell's are handled in the future.
"Each year, there are about 30 cases in this school system where students are discovered to be attending out of zone," he said. "I do not believe they will be prosecuted in this way."
Crosland said the ordeal has been traumatic for his client, and he has requested that McDowell be placed in a crisis center at York Correctional Institute.
McDowell's son, he said, is living with his grandmother and now attending school in Bridgeport.
Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 6:33 am
By: Denise Stewart, BlackAmericaWeb.com
A Bridgeport, Connecticut woman will spend five years in jail, have five years of probation and pay restitution after pleading guilty last week to first-degree larceny by sending her child to a school in a district where she did not have residence.
Tanya McDowell, 34, entered the plea, not because she agreed with the charges, but because she felt she would be convicted if the case went to trial and face a longer period behind bars, said Darnell Crosland, her lawyer.
McDowell was homeless in 2011 when she sent her five-year-old son to school in a district where his baby sitter lived in Norwalk, Connecticut. Shortly after facing the charges over schooling for her child, McDowell was arrested and charged with selling drugs to an undercover police officer.
Authorities taped McDowell six times selling drugs to undercover officers, Crosland said. She is set to be sentenced next month on the drug charges, and that time will run concurrently with time from her plea, he said.
"She did not agree with the larceny charges, but once she had the drug charges, it was difficult legally to handle the two situations separately," Crosland told BlackAmericaWeb.com. It was also difficult for McDowell to gain support on the school larceny after the drug charges entered the picture, he said.
McDowell was taped selling small amounts of drugs, Crosland said.
"The total value of the drugs she sold was not more than $500," he said. "She wasn't getting rich and living a life of luxury."
Crosland, who also is on the board of directors for a Connecticut homeless shelter, said many homeless people often have either battled a drug addiction or have sold drugs to get by.
McDowell had been to rehabilitation for drug addiction, but had clean drug tests for several months prior to her arrest, he said.
She still, however, wrestled with finding stable housing.
In September 2010, McDowell <span style="font-weight: bold">enrolled her five-year-old son in the Norwalk school system, using the address of the child's babysitter. She was arrested and charged in April 2011.
</span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">McDowell was charged with first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny after police said she lied about living in a Roodner Court apartment, leased through the Norwalk Housing Authority to her friend and babysitter, Ana Marques.</span>
It was during an eviction hearing for Marques that McDowell testified that she didn’t live in the apartment, but instead lived nearby in Bridgeport. Her son attended Brookside Elementary School, but withdrew from the school in January after the hearing, Crosland said.
During the investigation, McDowell explained she could only stay at the residence in Bridgeport at night and had to leave during the day. She also said she sometimes slept at the Norwalk Emergency Shelter and claims to occasionally sleep in her car.
Her arrest came shortly after a similar incidence in Akron, Ohio where another African-American mother was arrested in connection with enrolling her children in an incorrect school zone.
Kelley Williams-Bolar was sentenced to 10 days in jail earlier in 2011 after using her father’s address to enroll her two girls in a suburban school system.
Unlike Williams-Bolar, in McDowell's case, she removed her son from Brookside Elementary School when it was discovered that the two did not live in the Norwalk School District.
Officials with the Connecticut NAACP said other students had been discovered out of zone in that school system, but had not been arrested, as in McDowell's case.
Crosland, who was brought onto McDowell's case by the NAACP, said it will be interesting to see how cases similar to McDowell's are handled in the future.
"Each year, there are about 30 cases in this school system where students are discovered to be attending out of zone," he said. "I do not believe they will be prosecuted in this way."
Crosland said the ordeal has been traumatic for his client, and he has requested that McDowell be placed in a crisis center at York Correctional Institute.
McDowell's son, he said, is living with his grandmother and now attending school in Bridgeport.
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