Breastfeeding Mother Uses Online Petition To Dodge Jail Time For Admitted Crime

A breastfeeding Nevada woman won’t be doing jail time for a crime she admitted to committing, and it’s all because she’s nursing. Kristen Fleming of Las Vegas was able to dodge jail time for domestic violence because she’s a breastfeeding mother, and because she created an online campaign to gather signatures begging for clemency. Before the Change.org campaign was closed, she’d gathered nearly 2,000 signatures.

Breastfeeding mother avoids jail time after starting online petition https://t.co/lB3Xyv9HkD pic.twitter.com/eFbbQzl0ue

— KFOR (@kfor) April 8, 2016

As Fox 13 Now reports, the campaign contributed to a judge’s decision to reverse her jail sentence on Monday so that she could continue to exclusively breastfeed her six-month-old twins. The breastfeeding mother’s apparent success in avoiding jail time has created a lot of controversy, with some calling the judge’s decision a sexist double standard.

Here’s how it went down.

In January 2015, Fleming got into an altercation with her husband that turned physical. The cops showed up on the scene, and she admitted that she’d shoved her husband, which resulted in her arrest for domestic violence. The now-breastfeeding mother was charged with a misdemeanor and spent six days in jail, despite her husband’s request that the charges against her be dropped. Fleming found out she was pregnant two weeks later.

According to the breastfeeding mother, before the domestic violence incident, she’d never even had a traffic ticket. She decided to take her chances with the judge, who initially ordered her to simply take anger management classes within 12 months of the arrest. According to the breastfeeding mother, between her pregnancy with twins and her obligations as a new mom, she didn’t manage to get the classes done in a year’s time. So, in February, she went before a judge to plead for more time to complete her original sentence.

The judge in question, Judge Martin Hastings, was less than sympathetic, according to the breastfeeding mother. He told her that she “had a whole year” to complete her sentence, and as such would have to serve her time. She says she was almost taken into custody immediately. That’s when she told the judge she was a breastfeeding mother to twins, to which the judge replied, “Fine, I’m giving you a week to pump.”

“My biggest concern is the stress they’ve would’ve gone through because they don’t use bottles.”

The judge didn’t seem overly interested in Fleming’s concerns about her breastfeeding needs or her children’s “deprivation” and “trauma” should they be forced to endure 14 days without access to their breastfeeding mother.

“If you deprive these children, for example, of me, for 14 days and they go through a traumatic experience, it can cause them lifetime side effects.”

While the judge in question didn’t share the breastfeeding mother’s concerns, she was unwilling to walk away from breastfeeding her twins for 14 days without a fight, so she decided to launch her petition on Change.org. A petition that was, ultimately, a huge success. According to the breastfeeding mother, people from around the world commented on her petition and lent their support to her cause.

“I had people commenting from New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, Canada. It was worldwide.”

On Monday, April 4, Judge Martin Hastings decided to give the breastfeeding mother, at least in part, the clemency she was looking for. Rather than demanding that she spend her 14-day jail sentence incarcerated, he ordered that she spend 14 days on house arrest instead. The breastfeeding mother has until August to carry out her sentence.

While Fleming is calling this a victory, saying she was “really surprised” at her campaign’s success, others feel as though the breastfeeding mother may have gotten away with something she shouldn’t have. Especially considering that she both admitted to putting her hands on her husband and failed to carry out her simple sentence to complete anger management classes within the ample time-frame of an entire year.

Despite the breastfeeding mother’s concerns that her twins might be traumatized by being “deprived” access to her breasts for two weeks, a lead lactation consultant at St. Rose Dominican Hospital, Suzie Owens, said that the babies most likely wouldn’t have suffered any lasting consequences as a result of her short-term incarceration.

“No, if she has established a great breastfeeding routine and has support and knows how to protect and maintain her milk supply [there wouldn’t be negative consequences].”

In addition to at least one medical opinion that indicates that Fleming’s breastfeeding twins wouldn’t be unduly harmed if she’d had to serve her jail time, Fleming says that she’s also received hateful messages due to the backlash created by her online petition and the resulting change to her jail sentence.

According to the breastfeeding mother, people have told her that she’s “just making excuses” for not facing up to the consequences of her admitted crime. She has a message for her critics.

“You’re just making excuses,’ I would love for them to take bottles. I would actually get an eight-hour night sleep.”

So, what do you think? Is this a case of an admitted criminal grasping at straws to avoid justice, or is being a breastfeeding mother a legitimate excuse to avoid jail time for an admitted crime?

[Image Courtesy Of Veejay Villafranca/Getty Images]