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twitterFather arrested after leaving children in SUV
Friday, May 8, 2009 | 3:26 p.m.
A Las Vegas father has been arrested by Metro Police after he left an infant and a toddler inside an unattended sport utility vehicle.
Officers went to Twain Avenue and Rainbow Boulevard about 12:30 p.m. Friday to investigate a report of two children unattended inside a vehicle, police said.
Police found a 3-month-old and a 2-year-old, both boys, belted into their car seats inside an SUV parked near a business. The windows were down, the keys were in the ignition and the radio was on, police said.
Officers found the children's father, 35-year-old Willie Culver of Las Vegas, in a nearby bar where he had been gambling for about two hours, police said.
Culver was arrested for two counts of child endangerment and will be booked into the Clark County Detention Center, police said. Before today, Culver had no arrest record with Metro Police.
Metro Police officers remind everyone that leaving any vehicle with the keys in the ignition is an open invitation to having the vehicle stolen.
Leaving children unattended in vehicles can have tragic, often fatal results, police said.
Police warn parents and pet owners to never leave children or animals inside a vehicle even for a short period of time, especially as the weather warms in the Las Vegas Valley.
Discussion: 30 comments so far…
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How sad and disgusting to leave a 3-month old in a car so you can gamble for hours. I hope the county can place the kids in safer care permanently. Absolutely inexcusable for the father to do such a thing.
I hope he rots in jail.
The children were fine. Questionable judgment, not what a lot of parents would do, but no no harm was done, therefore no crime was committed.
Just Metro looking for reasons to keep their Family Gestapo unit funded.
No harm was done because a good Samaritan called the police before this turned into the tragedy. The man will still face charges as he intentionally left his two young children in his vehicle to drink and gamble.
What a sicko! Leaving his baby and small boy in the car, while he gambled inside! I hope they never give this man his children back! They are better off in foster care than with this idiot! I really hope they prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law.
Kudos, lock him up, take away his children. If he is married, she needs to divorce him and seek a man who is responsible. This guy is worthless piece of trash!
Check out the Sun Discussion at http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/may...
KillerB - are you an idiot? Because the children were fine you feel no crime was committed? If you point a gun at someone and say "give me your money" you've committed a crime whether you get anything or not...FYI!
my02cents -- you're obviously ignorant of what a crime really is. And your gun analogy is too far afield to even get close to applying here. No one was threatened by anyone.
KillerB r u nutz or what - besides these kids cooking to death they could have been kidnapped and God only knows what would could have happened to them before they were eventually killed. You need to get real - you seem to make an awful lot of concessions for lawbreakers.
Once again KillerB at his best spouting off his Las Vegas GED education. Like I stated earlier you need to seek some serious psychological help buddy. Your rants of love for the criminals of this world and hate for any authority figure shows how dumb you really are. What do you expect though with a blog name such as "killer"?
Wow, if it really "takes a village" I hope my village isn't quite so harsh.
Look, it's bad when any parent exercises poor judgment but no harm no foul. (almost)
This guy doesn't need to be punished as if the children died as a result of his lack of judgment, but rather punished as if he exercised bad judgment and nothing bad happened.
He's just lucky someone didn't see him disciplining his kids!
azsk8fan, bush2hater, et al. -- It's your loss you're both intimidated by actual independent thought, the kind that questions authority. Otherwise you're just saying "moooooo" with the rest of the Herd (read Judge Napolitano's "A Nation of Sheep").
KillerB ALWAYS defends the child molesters, rapist and other criminals because he is the leader of the evil herd, the killing kind. The kind that takes and breaks and has no remorse at all. The ones that believe they are above the law and have a right to be evil.
First of all, leaving children unattended at that age is a recipe for disaster. It's not poor judgement, it's child endangerment.
Killer, I know you enjoy taking the opposite side on issues, which of course is your right. Surely you have some common sense? Would you put your own self purposely in the position of heat stroke and/or dehydration?
Just wondering how comfortable you'd be and how you think your well being would be, if you were imprisoned in a car for 2 hours in 90 degree + weather with no water, sitting in a messy diaper...
Law or no law, the man is an incompetent parent. Those children had NO choice as to being prisoners in that SUV, however, you as an adult do.
Excellent point Linda...Come on Killer...let me lock you in your seat with no way to independently remove yourself in 90+ degree, without fluids, for two hours and let's see if your judgement of me is so liberal.
KillerB seems to have come onto the scene somewhere around the same time that Chester Stiles started making the news. Now I'm not making any accusations - just connecting the dots - and like I said once before it's a shame that idiots in jails and prisons have access to computers. Everyone can draw their own conclusions - I know I've drawn mine.
Linda in Vegas -- You're the only one posting anything worth the courtesy of a response.
Poor judgment is not a crime, only actions are. Part of what has always constituted a crime is mens rea (an evil mind or intent) AND the required element of an actual injury to the public or a member of the public. That goes all the way back to Blackstone, the British jurist who gave us commentaries on the English common law. The relevance here is that was the foundation of our written laws. Most of the best judges and lawyers at the beginning of this country had little formal legal education, but they all knew Blackstone. His Commentaries are still quoted today extensively by the high courts -- this state's Supreme Court last cited him as an authority just six weeks ago.
What everyone seems to miss here, and can't see through their lynch mob mentality, is no one was hurt, and there was no injury whatsoever to the public. The REAL agenda is a hungry and predatory Metro police force, and 109 county child abuse/neglect investigators looking for an excuse to justify their jobs and budgets.
Was the guy stupid and showed poor judgment? Of course. I've not questioned that. But the article said he had no arrest record, so it's a safe assumption he had no previous record of child neglect, etc. Unfortunately the article is silent on what happened to the kids when he was arrested -- did they wait for mom to come get them, or were they taken into custody as well. And likely that caused more trauma to the kids then being left alone.
Just because there's a law making it a crime that's hardly the end of what citizens should question. Our legislatures and courts have been off their leashes so long there's hardly even lip service given to the Rule of Law.
Class dismissed.
Not sure where the idea that both intent AND harm must both be meet to be a law violation. We have several laws where the "harm" part does not need to be meet for conviction. And since they seem to be passing Supreme Court review that would mean they meet with the Constitution as determined by the Supreme Court which is what they are charged to do.
azs8erfan: I totally agree with you on your assessment of Killer and the whole Chester the molester case. Maybe he is working in sales at the prison, they let criminals work the phone lines for companies such as Jcrew, Gap, Williams Sonoma online. You figure if students can find a way to get onto MYSPACE on school computers that are totally secure, then anyone can find a way to manipulate the computer and get onto Las Vegas sun.
Killer: Actually this article gives very little information about this incident, it's flimsy at best! If an article here catches my eye, I go to other resources, and gather information. Personally, I think it is foolhardy to count on just one source. In each article, there is a possibility of the person slanting what they are reporting, to their own way of thinking. I prefer to come to my own conclusions, with as many facts as I can find.
"Poor judgment is not a crime, only actions are"
This is true, however using poor judgment, then taking action on it may result in committing a crime.
"What everyone seems to miss here, and can't see through their lynch mob mentality, is no one was hurt, and there was no injury whatsoever to the public."
How do you know this to be a fact? This article doesn't elaborate, btw the children are part of the public, and how do you define hurt and injury?
"But the article said he had no arrest record, so it's a safe assumption he had no previous record of child neglect, etc."
No, the article did not say he had no arrest record. It stated that "Before today, Culvert had no arrest record with Metro Police." So, that isn't a safe assumption. The article doesn't say he doesn't have an arrest record elsewhere, nor does it mention how long he has been in the Las Vegas area. He could have moved here the day before this incident occurred.
For argument sake, let's just say this man has never been arrested anywhere for anything.. Now, just because he has never been arrested before.. and especially for child endangerment, doesn't mean he has never done this before... He just got caught this time.. maybe he never did it before and maybe he made a habit out of it and never got caught..
cont,
Case History: I have a friend that's father was a falling down drunk alcoholic. School teacher, pillar of the community, everyone thought he was a great guy (the family of course knew different). There was abuse in that home, and that man drove drunk for over 40 years, and guess what? In all those years, he never got caught. One day he went golfing. On his way home (10:00am) he flew through a red light (drunk as usual), hit another vehicle, and killed an innocent man.
My friend's father had no prior arrest record with Metro Police either. However, this man had been breaking the law for many years, it just so happens it took this terrible tragedy to get him off the streets. It took the loss of a life for him to get that arrest record from Metro.
So, had Mr.Culvert not been caught this time, he may well have continued this type of behavior until a tragedy did take place. These children were so lucky that someone saw them and reported it!
"Unfortunately the article is silent on what happened to the kids when he was arrested -- did they wait for mom to come get them, or were they taken into custody as well."
You, as well as I, know the mother came and got them. Just not from this article, but from reading others.
http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story....
One other thing Killer, the father was in the bar drinking and gambling for 2 hours. Had he come out minutes before the police had arrived, the children still fine.. got in the vehicle and drove off, he would have been furthering the endangerment of these children, because he would have been driving under the influence, impairing even more so his already acknowledged poor judgement.
The act of leaving a child under the age of 7 unattended in a vehicle with the keys in the ignition is a misdemeanor, unless these facts are part of another crime, such as child endangerment. NRS 202.575. Aside from the infant's messy diaper, the two-year-old was probably more impacted by being abandonned for two hours. How many two-year-olds do you know who can sit still with nothing to do for two hours? After a few minutes, this child was probably worried about where his dad was and when he was coming to get him. If the child had already learned to wait a very long time for his father's return, how many times had he previously been left?
cutthroat -- you weren't there, and all you've done here is show you know how to think like a two year old. As for the NRS, pay attention.
Linda -- I respect your reasoned, thorough posts. I have no problems with any of it. Answering all your questions in this tiny box we get for posts, and the time to do it, is another thing.
The threshold issue on all this remains the same -- what is and is not a crime according to substantive law. It's a long way from "the law's the law." Again, much of it has its roots in Blackstone, especially Book IV.
One example of how off the leash criminal law has become is the arrest of Hope Clarke for leaving marshmallows out at a campsite in Yellowstone (see "Like All Those New Laws? You May Get a Charge out of Them" at http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_...). To quote from that article: "At the state level, everything from peddling "untested sparklers" (Florida) to wearing low-rise jeans (which can get you up to six months in prison in Opelousas, Louisiana) is a criminal offense." This crap is happening everywhere and all citizens should be up in arms about it.
Follow the link in that article to "Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything" for more perspective on this problem. Most people are not aware any one of literally thousands of federal crimes (besides leaving marshmallows out) can put you behind bars for months. Some of those crimes include misappropriating the image of Hootie the Owl, impersonating a 4-H Club member and interstate transportation of unlicensed dentures.
There's some good books by good legal scholars questioning why our criminal laws are so out of control. One is "In the Name of Justice" at Cato.org. One question that book asks is "Whether the criminal law can retain its moral role of condemnation when policymakers remove the requirement that a person must knowingly commit a crime to be convicted." This is a key point.
My interest in this is subject is only as an informed citizen with an opinion, not for any love of just being contrary. Someone close to me was convicted of multiple felonies for simply accepting charity from a stranger. I was with him through the entire prosecution and actually set up most of the real defense. It's very scary watching an overzealous prosecutor and a jury in action.
To sum it up -- judge for yourself who's credible here, Linda. Like you I do my research -- unlike others here I don't make it up, I look it up, and post my opinon.
Yes Linda, criminals are always credible, just ask all the prisoners, they will be the first to tell you that they are all innocent. Mooooo Moooo
Hi starry... Do you have an open mind? Things aren't always what they appear to be... Many times when I have made a snap judgement, I have regretted it. Hopefully each time I have made a judgement call on just a few facts, and regret it later, I learn a new and valuable lesson.
One thing I a firmly believe in, as well as support, is the Innocence Project. Are you familiar with it? To me, it is just as big of a travesty for the innocent to be imprisoned as it is for someone that commits a crime and walks. Maybe bigger...
http://www.innocenceproject.org/
Hi Killer.. Thank you for the link. They do have some crazy laws on the books. They still have old laws from back in the 1800's, and older that are actually funny, and would put most people in jail today. Some are actually punishable by death.
I do get where you're coming from. I appreciate many of your posts as they can be thought provoking, which leads me to dig deeper and learn something new.
What a dull world it would be if we all thought exactly alike, and never viewed nor listened to other people's thoughts and opinions, whether we agree with them or not.
Thank you Linda, right on!
Except for one teeny weenie thing you echo a few posts up, and about every third post made the same implication linda just does it with pictures and arrows and eloquence:
Incarcerating a criminal prior to them hurting someone would be good.
Now how 'ya gonna manage that?
I suppose given a time machine to know exactly what will happen in the future we could have arrested the man in your example when he got pulled over for his first speeding ticket, thrown away the key, and saved that innocent life.
Just not sure that can be worked out fairly in the real world.
Then there's the other "what if?" arguments like what if someone in that family had not put up with it for 40 years? Innocent life saved again.
Is the family now by inaction accessories to murder? linda, did YOU know about it for decades? If we take this to its logical conclusion someone needs to lock "linda" up and throw away the key before she looks the other was so much more innocent people die!
(not picking you linda, I mean "linda" in quotes, ALL OF US citizens, not linda our blogger sister in particular.)
I'm afraid we just have to wait for our children to be hurt before we can punish anyone for hurting them.
In a free society I see no way we can get out in front people hurting people and prevent it by punishing possible-but-not-yet-criminals before they act.
But I DO share your wish that we could.
*look the other WAY