A Portsmouth mother charged with felony child neglect after locking her son outside of their home will not face jail time.
Prosecutors with the Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney office decided not to prosecute 33-year-old Tamiko Jones for the July 15, 2012 incident.
“The victory is mine,” said Jones. “It’s been difficult.”
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Jones locked her 8-year-old son out of their home last month as a disciplinary measure when he got into an argument with neighborhood kids.
“I locked my son outside, when he was outside with other children, with the police outside patrolling the area,” Jones said last month. “So if I really thought he was in danger, I would not have done that.”
Soon after, an officer patrolling the complex found her son sitting on a curb. The boy had urinated on himself. After a verbal disagreement with Jones, police arrested her for felony child neglect. However, prosecutors decided on Monday that there was not enough evidence to move forward with the case for now.
“For someone to say, 'Yeah, maybe we looked at this the wrong way,' I'm thankful for that,” said Jones. “At the same time, what about the people that you made look at me in the wrong way?"
Jones said she and her husband are using other measures to work on disciplining her son. As for the officer whose complaint led to her arrest, Jones does not hold any hard feelings.
“I’d tell him thank you for his love and compassion that he had for my son,” said Jones.
"I've prayed for him because we need people that have love and compassion for children, especially in Portsmouth, and I just pray and I ask God to help him direct that love and compassion because that is a gift.”
NewsChannel 3 reached out to the Portsmouth Police Department about the case, but no one got back to WTKR.
