PRLog (Press Release) –
Mar 11, 2008 – Crestwood Illinois
Treffly Coyne is the kind of mother who raises kids who take it upon themselves to collect spare change to donate to the poor.
The police in Crestwood Illinois call her a criminal.
On December 8th of 2007 Ms. Coyne drove to the local Walmart at the request of her children who had collected $8.29 in change, mostly pennies, and wanted to drop it in the Salvation Army bucket.
Ms. Coyne was proud. So proud she got out of the car to snap a few photos with her daughters aged 8 and 9 and their friend, also 9. Coyne parked right in front of the Walmart about thirty feet away from the bellringer. She left her youngest daughter who was sleeping, locked in her Volvo station wagon at the curb. The car was not running, the alarm was armed, the child was deep in a slumber.
Then the Crestwood Police arrived.
Coyne and her children returned to the car about two minutes later. She was away from the vehicle for less than 4 minutes. Her child was still sleeping.
Treffly Coyne was handcuffed and taken to jail in the back of a police car.
She was charged with child endangerment and obstruction of justice. Her sleeping two year old was taken into protective custody of the police.
Unfortunately, the three other little girls, horrified to see their mother arrested, were not taken into protective custody. They were completely ignored by the Crestwood Police and walked away terrified, crying and left on their own.
The irony is that Treffly Coye has to stand in front of a judge on March 13th in Bridgeview Illinois to answer to the charges.
The Crestwood Police do not.
"My family was warm and safe and together just doing a little good deed until the Crestwood Police arrived to help" said the father Tim Janecyk. "My wife is jailed, our child is taken from us, and they call her a bad mom but they abandon three little girls right there." Janecyk doesn't understand how the police can charge his wife with the crime of leaving their two year old safetly locked in a car for three or four minutes, yet the police seem to be immune from prosecution for endangering the other girls that night.
"My children were never in so much danger until the Crestwood Police arrrived on the scene." Janecyk stated.
The Crestwood Police and the village officials aren't talking, nor have they ever publicly defended the actions of their police.
It seems that Treffly Coyne has been labeled a criminal by the Crestwood Police because even though she never went into the Walmart, even though she was only thirty feet away, even thought she was gone two or three minutes, the police believe Treffly Coyne could not have been looking at the car all of that time. In other words, they claim she left the child unattended.
If Treffly Coyne is convicted of child endangerment at her trial on March 13th, here are some things that every mother does with a child in a car that will make them criminals:
Returning a shopping cart to the cart return.
Mailing a letter.
Filling a car up with gas.
Treffly Coyne was charged with a misdemeanor. She could have chosen to plead guilty and she would probably have been hit with a fifty dollar fine. You would never be reading this story.
Treffly Coyne is not the kind of mother who will teach her children to back down when she knows they have been wronged. "It was after I talked to the kids when I got their mom out of jail that I knew where this was going" Tim Janecyk said "The first thing those kids said to me was 'dad, what the police did to mom was wrong' I knew they needed to see us fight this."
Mothers everywhere might want to wish Treffly Coyne good luck at her trial. This little case has far greater implications on parental rights in Illinois and perhaps the nation.
Something is wrong when the law in Ilinois will make every mother a criminal.
