At approximately 11:40am on 6/15/09, I pulled up & parallel parked in front of the Naro Expanded Cinema in order to return videos to the Naro Video store next door. I had my two children in the vehicle with me. There was a crowd of about 5 to 10 people, including Officer Bostjank out front of the theater. The crowd appeared to be gathered for some type of filming (I later on found out that it was filming for some type of driving training film). I had parked in front of a U-Haul truck that had orange cones around the back end of the truck. There were, however, no indications that the spot in front of the truck was reserved. I asked the kids to stay put in the vehicle since I was not entering the video store, turned off the vehicle, got out, & locked the doors. I started at a fast trot towards the video store and on my way said, “I don’t know if that spot is reserved but I will only be a minute – I’m dropping these into the slot (I lifted my hand with the videos into the air).

    At this point, from my peripheral vision, I noticed Officer Bostjank moving towards me. I heard him say something about the children in the car. In this amount of time, I had made it to the video store’s front door, dropped the videos into the slot and was halfway back to the vehicle. Officer Bostjank stood in front of me and said “I am not worried about the spot but I am worried about you neglecting those kids in the car”. I said, “Excuse me?” because I was taken completely aback by this comment. He said, “You left those children unattended.” I responded with “Sir, I could see the vehicle from where I dropped the videos. They aren’t even but 20 to 30 feet away.” “He quickly retorted with “You had your back to them!” I was just flabbergasted. At this point, before I could say anything further, Officer Bostjank declared, “I was going to give you warning but now I am going to arrest you for child neglect. Let me have your identification.” I was dumbfounded and responded with “Okay sir” and pulled out my ID. He informed me that he had no summons on him & would need to call in for one.  He told me that I could sit in the vehicle & wait if I wanted to. I asked to remove my kids from the vehicle. He said that was fine. 

I retrieved my children and the officer motioned us away from the movie theater to the front of the video store, commenting "I don't want you to be embarrassed." I responded that I didn't feel as though I had anything to be embarrassed about. The officer's only response was to glare at me. We stood with him on the sidewalk while waiting for the officer to arrive with the summons. The kids and I were silently standing next to the officer when he asked “How old are your children?” It is my habit to allow my children to speak for themselves, so I turned to them for their answers. Officer Bostjank became very angry with me and began yelling the following at me: “You don’t know how old your children are ma’am? Why did you turn to them to speak?! .” I responded with, “I am sorry sir but it is my habit to let them speak for themselves. You were asking a question about them & I let them answer. I am sorry for offending you.” He responded with “I asked YOU not them. This is your problem that you don’t follow what I say. You could have gotten off with a warning but since you don’t know how to be silent and follow direction, you are being charged with child neglect.” I did not respond to this comment. A second officer showed up at this point with the summons. A third officer showed up with an ink pad. The two "extra" officers stood around us while Officer Bostjank wrote up my summons. He informed me that by signing the summons, I wasn’t admitting guilt, only agreeing to show up in court. I signed the summons. He then asked for my thumb print. I asked, “If I am not guilty by signing, why do I have to give you my thumb print?” He answered with “It is our policy. Give me your thumb print or I can physically take you into custody to get it.” I said nothing and gave him my thumb print. Officer Bostjank tore my copy of the summons from the rest of the paperwork, handed it to me, & began to berate me again for my inability to remain silent. He said “You could have gotten off with a warning but you had to question me.” I said, “My apologies sir. I just couldn’t fathom that you were seriously accusing me of neglecting my children. I am so sorry that you are bothered by the fact that I spoke my mind to you. I was under the mistaken idea that I had the right to free speech, given the first amendment. I was apparently wrong. I just hope that you feel satisfied spending your time ticketing me while somewhere out there a child is being beaten or starving.” .” He became rather irate with me as this point and told me that I needed to leave before he took me into physical custody. I had my summons in hand, put my hands on my children’s shoulders to walk them back toward the car.