Last week, in the wake of a Florida cop being busted for using a law enforcement database for hookups, I wondered—is it long past time for us to take a long, hard look at how we vet our cops? After all, in far too many cases in recent years where cops behave badly, it turns out that they have no business on the force in the first place.
Those questions ought to grow even louder in light of a disturbing case in Long Beach, Mississippi—on the Gulf Coast, between Pass Christian and Gulfport. Back in 2016, Long Beach police officer Cassie Barker drove to the home of her then-supervisor, Clark Ladner, in Bay St. Louis. She rolled up in her patrol car with her daughter, three-year-old Cheyenne Heyer, in the passenger seat.
Barker walked into Ladner’s house, and the two had sex for four hours—with Cheyenne still in the car in 100-degree heat. When Baker came back, Cheyenne was unresponsive. She died at the hospital; by the time she arrived, her temperature was 107 degrees.
Barker and Ladner were both fired—deservedly so—soon afterward. On Monday—as if she had a choice—Baker pleaded guilty to causing her daughter’s death.
Originally indicted on a charge of second-degree murder, the 29-year-old pleaded guilty Monday to a reduced charge of manslaughter in a plea deal with the state.
The state recommended a 20-year sentence, but Circuit Judge Larry Bourgeois said he wants more time to consider it. He set sentencing for April 1 in Bay St. Louis.
“I don’t know what I could ever do to you that could be worse than what you’ve already experienced ... You will forever be entombed in a prison of your own mind,” he said to Barker.
What’s there for Bourgeois to consider? Leaving a child in a hot car, in freaking south Mississippi? According to WLOX in Biloxi, 20 years is the maximum permitted under state law. By all rights, Barker should serve every minute of it.
Now here’s where this story gets hideous. It’s not the first time that Barker left Cheyenne in a hot car. Back in 2015, not long after she’d been hired, Barker left Cheyenne in her car while shopping in Gulfport. A good Samaritan saw Cheyenne in the car and called police.
You would have thought that Barker would have been fired on the spot—especially since, according to the (Biloxi) Sun Herald, she was still on her one-year probationary period at the time. Ultimately, she was only suspended for one week, and placed on an additional 90 days probation. According to CBS News, Mississippi child welfare authorities placed Cheyenne in temporary custody for a time.
In what world is leaving a child in a hot car anywhere—especially in the Deep South—not a firing offense? Any police department that doesn’t have its head up its rear end would consider this a “one strike, you’re out” situation. Even worse, Cheyenne’s dad, Ryan Hyer, says he was never told of the 2015 incident. Had he known about it, he would have likely been pounding at the door of the courthouse demanding that he get custody of Cheyenne.
Hyer is suing the Long Branch police and the Mississippi Department of Child Welfare Services for not dropping the hammer sooner. And with good reason. There’s no question about it—had Barker been fired and Hyer been able to get custody of Cheyenne after the first incident, Cheyenne is still alive. Frankly, you have to wonder why the police department and the state haven’t settled sooner. They’d be suicidal to let this go to trial.
Simply put, there is something fundamentally wrong when a cop who leaves his or her daughter in a hot car can still keep his or her job. This is the very thing that undermines public trust in the police.