WEST CHESTER — A plea for mercy from the family of a young child who drowned in a retention pond at a Chester County park has led to the early parole of a nanny whose distraction from her duty to pay attention to his whereabouts indirectly contributed to the boy’s death.
On Thursday, after receiving a lengthy letter from the boy’s family asking that she be treated with compassion, the District Attorney’s Office agreed to allow the nanny, Imani Lewis, to be released from local custody after serving 188 days in Chester County Prison.
An earlier version of the plea agreement that was negotiated by First Assistant District Attorney Erin O’Brien and Assistant Public Defender Christopher Nelson had called for Lewis, 28, of Richmond, Va., to be sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 months in prison, followed by three years of probation on a single count of involuntary manslaughter.
But O’Brien told Common Pleas Judge Ann Marie Wheatcraft, who presided over the proceeding and sentenced Lewis, that her office had taken into account the wishes of the family in revising the sentence after receiving the letter Thursday morning.
In the letter, the mother of the child — a non-verbal boy who had been diagnosed as autistic — related how Lewis had been diligent and caring with the child and his other family during her work with them, even on the day he died. And although the family still grieves mightily over the child’s death — “The shock we feel can never be put into words” — they were not out to punish Lewis, she wrote.
“I believe … that she made a terrible mistake,” the mother wrote in the letter, a portion of which O’Brien read in open court. “I cannot say what was going through her mind,” when she failed to notice that the boy had walked away from the playground where they were sitting, but the mother said that children with autism are sometimes prone to wandering and are attracted to bodies of water, with “no perception of danger.”
“We do not blame Imani,” the mother wrote, asking that she be released as soon as possible.
O’Brien and Nelson both told Wheatcraft that even when she is paroled from her county sentence, Lewis is not going to be freed from custody anytime soon. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has filed a detainer for her, and will likely begin deportation proceedings once she is transferred to its custody.
O’Brien said that Lewis had expressed her intention not to fight her deportation and to return to her naive Jamaica as soon as she can. Lewis wept through the entire proceeding. “ I can see that you are very remorseful,” the judge told Lewis, who was dressed in prison clothes and shackled. “Thank you very much,” she told Wheatcraft as the judge wished her good luck.
According to the facts that O’Brien read into the record for Wheatcraft, and to which Lewis agreed, the child died the evening of Sept. 2 at the Wilson Farm Park in Tredyffrin, where the family lived.
The woman was allegedly preoccupied with her looking at her cell phone while the child wandered away from her and into the nearby pond, authorities said. He drowned as she was distracted.
At the time, Chester County District Attorney Christopher L. de Barrena-Sarobe said, “This is just a sad and tragic case we all wish never happened.”
“This is a devastating death for the victim’s family,” Tredyffrin Police Chief Michael Beaty added. “Our entire community has felt the effects of it.”
The criminal complaint filed by township Detective Michael Cermignano details how on that date at approximately 6:49 p.m. officers were dispatched to Wilson Farm Park, in the Chesterbrook subdivision of the township in the county’s eastern side, for the report of a missing 3-year-old, non-verbal child. Lewis, who was working as the child’s nanny, was the person who called 911.
Officers searched the area of the park, including a path leading to the stormwater retention pond, which was about 300 feet from the playground.
When police approached the water’s edge they spotted the victim unresponsive in the pond. The child was taken out of the water and emergency life-saving measures were administered, but unfortunately, the child died. Investigators later determined that Lewis had been in contact with several people through phone calls and text messages, before, during and after the victim had gone missing.
Video surveillance at the park showed the child utilizing the play sets while Lewis was observantly using her cellphone and distracted from supervising him. When she was initially interviewed, she gave conflicting information about what had occurred. But police were able to piece together how long the child had been out of eyesight from Lewis before she noticed him missing. The time, said O’Brien, was “significant.”
However, Lewis eventually acknowledged her distraction and did not fight the charges against her. She waived a preliminary hearing and accepted responsibility for what happened, O’Brien said.
To contact staff writer Michael P. Rellahan call 610-696-1544.
Source: Berkshire mont
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