041 Florida v. Williams

Petty Officer Williams woke to the sound of her alarm in the morning of November 6th. Williams, the mother to a five-year-old, should have woken to the soft noises of her child stirring in the next room. Perhaps she would have normally tripped over errant clothing even a dreaded Lego piece as she began to don her uniform and prepare for work.  Instead of a debate over breakfast choices, Williams stepped into her boots and adjusted her cover in silence.  She prepared like it was any other day, then staged a phone call to the police to report her child missing.   The appellate opinion was not, objectively, helpful. Nevertheless, it can be found here. I relied on information from Jacksonville.com (1)(2), People, Yahoo, News 4 Jax (1)(2), Law and Crime, the Florida Courts website, TikTok, First Coast News (1)(2)(3)(4). Though it isn't directly relevant to this case, I'm also linking to the portion of the California Constitution that requires appellate opinions to include their reasoning. This episode involves discussion of two difficult topics: child abuse and neglect, and suicide. If you suspect child abuse, please call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453) or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. Separately, if you are experience thoughts of self-harm, I urgent you to contact the Suicide and Crisi