Late last month, we learned about an appalling situation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Back in 2016, Cassie Barker, a second-year cop in Long Beach, between Pass Christian and Gulfport, drove her patrol car to the home of her supervisor, Clark Ladner, after a long shift, with her three-year-old daughter, Cheyenne Heyer, in tow. Barker and her supervisor had sex for four hours—while Cheyenne was still in the car and the heat index zoomed to 100 degrees.
When Barker came to the car, Cheyenne was unresponsive. She died in the hospital, and Barker was charged with second-degree murder. In March, as if she had a choice, she pleaded guilty—albeit to a reduced charge of manslaughter, for which she faced up to 20 years in prison. However, circuit judge Larry Bourgeois gave a lot of people pause when he said he needed some time to consider the sentence—and said that he didn’t know if any sentence he imposed would be any worse than what Barker had already experienced.
Well, sanity prevailed on Monday. Barker got the max—20 years in prison.
During her plea, Barker initially said she had stopped to talk, then fell asleep. When pressed by prosecutors and the judge, she admitted she had been having sex with Ladner before she fell asleep. She said she had just gotten off of a 12-hour shift.
By the time Barker got back to the car, Cheyenne was unresponsive.
She said she attempted CPR, but when paramedics got to the scene, they could not detect a pulse.
The heat index that day reached over 100 degrees. Cheyenne’s body temperature was 107 degrees when she was pronounced dead.
“I can appreciate you loved the child, but you left the child — your own flesh and blood — in a car while you went into the air-conditioned house while you had sexual relations,” the judge said Monday.
“When you have a child and you bring this child into the world, it also brings responsibility. I don’t know how to put it other than you have failed in the responsibility of this child.”
According to WLOX in Biloxi, Bourgeois also told Barker that she had a duty, both as a mom and a police officer, to “protect and serve”—and disregarded it.
If there is any justice, though, this shouldn't be the end of the story. After all, what happened here is something we rarely witness—a complete failure of every safeguard intended to protect children.
For one thing, this wasn’t the first time Barker left Cheyenne in a hot car. In May 2015, she left Cheyenne in the car while shopping at a strip mall in Gulfport. Incredibly, all she got for it was a one-week suspension, and her probation as a new hire was extended for 90 days. In what world is leaving a child in a hot car in south Mississippi not an instant firing offense. Yes, it was May, but the average temperature in that area is 83 degrees. Now add in the humidity. There is literally no defensible reason to leave a child in a car in those conditions. Indeed, a good argument can be made that she should have been arrested for it.
Even more incredibly, Cheyenne’s father, Ryan Hyer, was never notified about the incident. Ryan is suing the police department and the state child welfare department for not notifying him. Barker actually had the nerve to knock Ryan’s ability as a father at sentencing, saying that he didn’t even know what Cheyenne’s favorite toys are. Um, Cassie? You’re one to talk after leaving your own daughter to roast alive.
Situations like this, I think, are why we see a lot of police departments and prosecutors chase down cases of child abuse even when it’s clear that there’s nothing there—especially when it’s clear that the whole thing is a hoax. When that happens, all too often innocent people either get railroaded—or nearly get railroaded, as in the case of Sandeep Singh in California. And all too often, minorities an the poor get caught in this crossfire, as they don’t have the financial wherewithal to mount an adequate defense.
I’d wondered why this has happened too often for comfort. Well, this case offers part of the answer. Cops and prosecutors are afraid of having to be in a position to explain themselves in case they miss a tragedy.
