Newborn’S Parents Get Amnesty Prosecutor Encourages Them To Come Forward, Hopes To Speed Adoption For Abandoned Infant

The parents of an abandoned newborn won’t face criminal charges if they turn themselves in and allow the child to be adopted, Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas said Wednesday.

“I’m granting the parents amnesty in order to encourage them to come forward,” Douglas said.

A day-old baby named Caitlyn was left at the doorstep of a Coeur d’Alene assistance program Monday afternoon.

Employees at the Women, Infants and Children office discovered Caitlyn wrapped in clothes and blankets around 12:45 p.m.

Inside the clothes, a one-paragraph handwritten note from the baby’s mother said she had left the baby there because she couldn’t care for her.

The baby’s umbilical cord had been tied off with a shoestring, a sign that the mother may have delivered the child on her own, witnesses said.

Three Coeur d’Alene police detectives still were looking for clues about the mother’s identity on Wednesday, Sgt. Chuck Fritts said.

“We’re looking for anybody to come forward,” Fritts said.

Social workers reported an outpouring of support for Caitlyn. Lutheran Social Services, which handles adoptions and foster parents, has received calls, as has the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

Hayden Lake resident Cynthia Poole said she supports Douglas’ decision and wants to help the mother.

“The more we do that, the less children will be abandoned,” she said.

Poole, 48, says she understands how difficult it would be for a mother.

“With all the controversy with abortion and not, it can be kind of scary,” she said. “I’d like to support her.”

The baby was about 12 to 24 hours old and in good health when she was found.

Witnesses said the newborn appeared to have been well-cared for. She was clean and freshly powdered.

Caitlyn was taken to Kootenai Medical Center for tests, then turned over to the custody of state Department of Health and Welfare workers, who are seeking a home for her.

Because the mother took care in finding a safe place where authorities would find the baby and left a loving note, police don’t want to punish her. They want to help her and the child, Fritts said.

The mother could have faced criminal charges of child abandonment or child injury, both of which are felonies. The maximum punishment for child abandonment is 14 years in prison.

“I want to encourage the proper adoption process and termination and relinquishing of parental rights in a way recognized by law,” Douglas said Wednesday.

He said that although he has agreed not to press criminal charges, the case will still be one for social workers to decide.

Health and Welfare could file child protective action in the court system.

This sidebar appeared with the story: CONTACTS Police

Anyone with information about Caitlyn’s case is asked to contact the Coeur d’Alene Police Department at (208) 769-2320 or (208) 769-2291.

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