By Calvin Palmer
A woman in Ohio was spotted breast-feeding a child and talking on a cell phone while driving a vehicle.
A male motorist called police in the Dayton suburb of Kettering after he saw the woman drop a number of children off at a school on Thursday morning, said police officer Michael Burke.
The recording of the motorist’s non-emergency call was released yesterday.
“I’m following right behind her right now on Far Hills Avenue,” the caller said as he spoke to a Kettering dispatcher.
“I tried to say something to her. She literally has the little girl on the steering wheel and I said, ‘I can’t believe you have that kid in your lap and she said, ‘You want to pop your titty out and breastfeed this kid?’ That’s what she said to me. I’m like, ‘You can feed your kid when you stop.’ It’s like wet out here. It’s full of traffic. It’s ridiculous. She’s got like three other kids in the car.”
The motorist took down the license plate number of the Honda minivan and authorities used it to trace the woman.
Genine Compton, 39, of Harrison Township, admitted she breast-fed her child and also told police that she does not deprive her child when the child is hungry, Burke said.
She was charged with a first-degree misdemeanor of child endangering and minor misdemeanor for unlawfully restraining her child, which Burke believes was under the age of two.
“Our issue is not the fact that this woman was breast-feeding in public,” Burke said. He added that Compton would have been charged even if the child was just sitting on her lap. “Our issue is that she created the condition that placed her child’s health and safety at risk.”
Compton faces up to 180 days in jail and a $1,800 fine if convicted of the first-degree misdemeanor.
[Based on reports by the Dayton Daily News and Associated Press.]
