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Beaver Twp. mom gets two years in home alone case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
The woman charged with leaving her two young children strapped in their car seats in front of the television while she worked the overnight shift at a nursing home told a judge Tuesday she regrets leaving them alone that evening.
Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sentenced Kacee Moser, 26, of Beaver Township, to two years in prison with credit for 342 days served in jail as she awaited the outcome of her case.
Moser tearfully told the judge she has not seen her two sons, age 3 years and 9 months at the time she was arrested in June 2013, for almost two years.
“It breaks my heart,” Moser said. “I do love them. I did learn my lesson.”
Police said Moser left the two boys when she went to work.
A woman who gave her a ride was concerned about the children and went to check on them about an hour and 45 minutes later, said Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McLaughlin.
The woman found the boys alone and called police.
Police went to the nursing home where Moser worked and she ran away before they could question her. She turned herself in two days later.
Moser was free on bond but has had that bond revoked twice while her case was pending.
McLaughlin said Moser deserved prison because of a past, lengthy prison record and two receiving stolen property convictions.
Her lawyer, Tony Meranto — her third lawyer since she was arrested — told the judge he disagrees prison is necessary.
He said her conduct was unacceptable as a parent but she was not indicted under a charge that said the children suffered physical harm.
The children were not harmed, although McLaughlin said the oldest child was covered in urine and feces.
Meranto said Moser’s case is an issue that has cropped up across the country, of mothers who are short of money and are left with the hard issues of how to have someone watch their children while they work.
“This is a hot-button case,” Meranto said.
Meranto also said that the two convictions his client has are misdemeanors, not felonies, and that her only felonies as an adult are what she was being sentenced for Tuedsay.
Moser told the judge she asked for help but was denied at every turn. She said now she is cooperating with county Children Services Board workers on her case, is attending regular parenting classes and is undergoing therapy to help her deal with some of her mental issues.
“There’s no question I made the wrong decision,” Moser said of the night she left her children alone. “But I didn’t think to myself I would hurt my children.”