Girl who dumped baby watns custody

The Journal Sentinel staff

Five months ago, in the predawn hours of a raw autumn morning, a teenage mother threw her newborn daughter into a garbage cart and walked away from the crying infant.

Now, this 18-year-old mother is attempting to prove she can be a fit parent, and is fighting to regain custody of her baby. However, that won't happen if officials in the Milwaukee County Department of Human Services have their way.

"There's no intention by the department to reunite this mother with her child," Jefferson J. Aikin, department spokesman, said Tuesday. "Our plan is to terminate parental rights and place the child for adoption."

The child was named Autumn Day by the hospital workers who cared for her after she was discovered in the garbage cart.

Until a court hearing Tuesday, adjournments had postponed the court's action.

Obviously exasperated by the delays, Children's Court Judge Michael Malmstadt set a jury trial for April 25 to determine whether the child is in need of protective services, which would give the Department of Human Services custody of Autumn Day for one year. The department currently has temporary custody.

He described a court report on the possibility of reuniting Autumn Day with her mother as "somewhat Pollyannic."

The last time the mother saw or held her baby was when she wrapped the infant in a rug and placed her in an empty box. She then put the box in the trash.

Fifteen hours later, the infant was found by a man collecting what he thought was a dead cat. The mother, who is not being identified by the Journal Sentinel to protect the child's, has been denied visitation by the court.

Autumn Day's abandonment in an alley trash bin shocked and angered many, prompting an overwhelming number of calls to the department with offers to adopt the infant. The department has an adoptive family ready to take the child, but can't take any action until it receives direction from the court.

The mother is contesting the court's move to place the child under protective services. If the jury decides in her favor, she would regain custody of her daughter. Her lawyer, Eric Steele, declined to comment on the case under direction from his client.

However, if the department receives jurisdiction, parental rights probably would not be terminated until December, Aikin said.

Today, Autumn Day is in her second foster home since her release from the hospital last fall.

Malmstadt called for someone in the Department of Human Services to sit down with the young mother and have some frank discussions "about some of the decisions that appear being made on this case."

"Quite frankly, I believe there's almost a fear of doing that for some reason and I don't know what that reason is," he said. "There are some hard decisions that have to be made about supporting infants on AFDC and about the ability to parent here. I'm not sure any of us have had those discussions."

At the waiver hearing last November, "there were extensive discussions about ongoing problems that this young lady has that are going to clearly take a substantial period of time to resolve," Malmstadt said.

"There should be some discussion about where (the baby) fits in all that," he said. "It's wonderful to say `I want to visit and get my baby back.' I think some people ought to have discussions about the reality of all that . . . and the potential for damage that may be done in attempting to fulfill those desires."

Mom To Be Sentenced

In the meantime, the mother is scheduled to be sentenced in June in adult court after pleading guilty to one count of recklessly endangering safety. A 17- year-old girl who helped the 18- year-old mother dispose of the baby also pleaded guilty to the same charge.

The young mother faces up to five years in prison. She was set to be sentenced last month, but that case was adjourned. She is out on bail and living with a family member.

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