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Dad used 9-year-old as "designated driver"

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M

M0RPH

Diamond Member
They said she was sitting on a booster seat. Any theories on how she reached the pedals? (This was a full-sized van)

Also do you think he deserves to be charged with 4th degree child abuse?

Link w/ video:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/18/earlyshow/main20121895.shtml

A Detroit-area man had his 9-year-old daughter drive him to the store because he had apparently been drinking, police said Monday, and surveillance video from a gas station shows him telling a clerk that his daughter was his "designated driver."
Brownstown Township Detective Lt. Robert Grant said the girl was sitting behind the wheel in a child's booster seat before 3 a.m. on Oct. 8, when an officer opened the driver's side door of the full-sized panel van her father uses for work. He said she was surprised when police pulled her over.
She said to the officer, "What did you stop me for? I was driving good," Grant told the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News.
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"I got a designated driver," the man said.
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Heh.

He was charged with second- and fourth-degree child abuse during an Oct. 10 arraignment.
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What are the penalties/definitions?

He also was charged with being a habitual offender and could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted. The habitual offender charge stems from convictions on four previous felonies, including receiving and concealing stolen property and unarmed robbery, Grant said.
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Book 'em, Danno, long, long time.
 
Not sure on the reaching the peddles. But yes, I consider that child abuse because you have essentially put your child at an incredible danger. At a minimum it would be child endangerment. Do we need to wait til the child gets in a wreck and killed/hurt to call it child abuse, I would hope not.
 
This reminds me of a story my best friend told me of his childhood. I think he was 11 and his dad or older brother made him follow them driving a car to the repair garage so they would have a vehicle to drive back. He said he drove the whole time with the car in "1" and it was never the same after that.
 
I'm a fan of teaching kids about driving early, but you obviously shouldn't do it while you're drunk.
 
Reminds me of a girl I dated once. She had told me that her dad would take her to parties when she was something like 12 years old, so that she could drive his drunk ass home.

Actually a cousin of mine used to drive to liquor stores and use her fake ID when she was 15 years old to buy whiskey for my drunk uncle. 🙁
 
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