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Grand jury to hear case of mother accused of snatching son at Canfield school
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
A case involving a mother accused of taking her son from his grandmother in front of Ursuline Preschool — and driving with the grandmother being dragged on the pavement by the car — has been bound over to a grand jury.
Lauren K. Sawdey, 19, of Holland, Ohio, and her aunt, Rhonda L. Thomas, 42, of Newport, Mich., were both in Mahoning County Area Court on Friday for their preliminary hearings on charges of felonious assault and inducing panic, a misdemeanor.
Mike McBride, Mahoning County assistant prosecutor, asked that the misdemeanor charges be dropped and the felonious assault charges on both be bound over to the grand jury. Judge Hunter S. Scott sided with McBride after hearing from Sawdey’s attorney, Ron Yarwood, and Thomas’ attorney, Edward Hartwig.
“The court concludes that there is sufficient probable cause to believe that the alleged crimes have been committed,” Judge Hunter said.
McBride had argued: “We believe that the vehicle is a deadly weapon that was being used in an attempt to cause harm ... [and] the fact that she was dragged along the vehicle.”
Attorneys for Thomas and Sawdey argued this did not fit the qualifications for felonious assault, but Judge Hunter sided with McBride.
There were two witnesses called by McBride: the grandmother of the 2-year-old allegedly taken by Sawdey, the boy’s mother; and a parent at Ursuline Preschool who witnessed the event.
The grandmother described the hectic morning of Sept. 30. She said she was walking her grandson to the doors of the preschool on Shields Road when Sawdey ran up behind her, took the boy away and ran with him in front of her into a white vehicle.
The grandmother chased the boy and got into the vehicle to get the child, but was not fully in the vehicle once it began to move. Pictures of damage to her shoes, which were dragged on the pavement, were entered in as evidence. She testified that she was thrown out of the vehicle on Tippecanoe Road.
She testified that she lunged into the vehicle, with her hands holding onto the car seat, and she eventually got into the vehicle fully and called 911 after the boy was put into the car seat.
Sawdey and the boy’s father have an arrangement with custody, but the full details of that arrangement were not revealed Friday. The grandmother testified that Sawdey had not seen the boy in almost six months, a statement that Yarwood, attorney for Sawdey, disputed.
The incident caused a lockdown at Ursuline Preschool for a time on Sept. 30, which had resulted in the charges of inducing panic.