Jennifer Franks Ordered To Prison After Appeal
Jennifer Franks — who initially received a suspended sentence in connection with the death of 18-month-old Nasir Burgess — has been ordered to serve time in prison following an appeal.
In September 2011, Ms Franks was operating a day care centre at her Pembroke home and she left the toddler at home, unattended, in reach of a power cord. On returning home she found Nasir in an unresponsive state entangled in the power cord.
During her trial the Court heard Ms Franks, 58, was only licenced to look after three children, but was known to have up to twelve in her care.
She pleaded guilty to three counts of unlawfully endangering children to danger was initially given a two year prison sentence, which was suspended for three years, and also ordered to perform 400 hours of community service. The sentence was criticized by numerous people as being insufficient.
In deciding to strike down the suspended sentence, the Court cited “aggravating features” saying the conduct was not an isolated incident with children left alone regularly and the fact that Ms Franks often exceeded the number of permitted children in her care.
In passing judgement and sending Ms Franks to prison for nine months, the Court said: “This is not a case where a suspended sentence is appropriate. On the other hand it is appropriate to reduce the length to the sentence that was imposed by the judge in the grounds of fairness.
“The appellant’s appeal is allowed. The existing sentence of 400 hours community service and probation is vacated and the sentences of 2 years imprisonment on count 2 and 1 year concurrent on counts 3 and 4 [also suspended] are varied to a sentence of immediate imprisonment of 9 months on each of the 3 counts concurrently.”
The full Court of Appeal decision is below [PDF here]
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TAKE HER DOWN !
Yes she should serve jail time more than 3 years n be banned from any form of child care to make money
Damn, Ive seen my friend get more time for selling small amounts of weed. Yet this women get 9 months for neglecting childcare?
The justice system is a joke!
Poor kids…for the love of money…no care and attention! Sad all around.
For the life of me I don’t know why this woman had to collect her adult child from work – leaving her own work to do so.
Between her and her adult child – one of them should have had the sense to say this is not okay.
My thoughts are with the parents of this baby often.
what jacka** would let her off in the first place, seriously? was he related to her? if that was my child with this negligent, selfish, inconsiderate, wreckless, irresponsible woman.
that was a human life carelessly taken away before it got a chance, thanks to the STUPID RETARDED BRAINLESS IDIOTIC DIMWITTED decision made by this unproffessional twit. She never deserved to look after kids in the first place if this is what she ended up doing.
that woman is scum, you don’t put your selfish errands before a human innocent life, oh my God it is pathetic, but what can I say, I am not surprised….. i am disgusted that the judge couldn’t put her in jail and worse the first time.
but its bermuda, so you know aunty this or sis that or cousin this n bro that gets off for anything they do
like when that 14yr old thug boy knocked and assaulted an 85yr old woman and trhew her to the ground so hard she broke her spine, and she ended up dying from the injury, all so he could steal her purse. The judge let that boy off slap on the wrist, saying, “I sympathize for you young man, you grew up in a rough neighborhood.”
That is the assinine mindset of the judges in our country. Not to mention the worthless nature of some of our people and the vast majority of the useless youth coming up now in the generations now.
Sad….If she was KNOWN to have more (at times) than the allotted 3 kids why wasn’t she reported than and shut down?…Why wait until something happens and then bring to light what she was doing?….makes no sense what so ever…..
Two years ago I repeatedly reported a woman to the proper authority who was running an unregistered child care service at her home (and who also had more than the legal amount of children in her care). NOTHING was ever done – NOTHING!! And … she’s still doing it!
@ Stella …..THAT is ridiculous……
Report it to Sheila Cooper, don;t know her but thats my girl for cleaning up dumb stuff like that
Did you forget where you live? You know how many people are reported for doing things illegal and it gets ignored?
lets get this straight..Allows toddler to strangle himself to death and gets 9 months in jail
Gets caught with one spliff and gets 1 month in jail..
Something definitely not right here
It is always a tradgedy when one loses a child. Very sad indeed. Glad justice was finally served.
On the other hand me as a parent of 8 there is noway I am leaving my child with a person that has that many kids and is the only person responsible for them. It is noway. That’s way too many kids for one person to have especially if they are all around that age. 0 – 4yrs.
Justsaying#
Was justice really served?
If you’re a parent of 8, you need a hobby!
if you are a parent of 8 you need to get Condoms!
@ nuffin but the truth…….if someone can afford to raise 8 children or more, why do they need condoms?
Or birth control
she allowed a BABY to DIE that she was responsiblr for…
I HAVE NOTHING for this piece of trash except to say..LOCK HER UP !
Glad to see her behind bars, but thats not nearly long enough
First off, my thoughts and prayers of comfort goes out to all involved, especially the parents and family of this baby. This truly ridiculous outcome to this unfortunate situation is another example pf how biased and unbalanced our justice system is. The police and justice system is designed to protect and serve. This is not hard to understand, maybe just hard to maintain. This irreplaceable, most priceless human life was stolen from him, his family and Bermuda as a whole. It can only be memories of what was and imaginations of what could have been. If leaving the house regardless of WHATEVER circumstances, (unless maybe the ambulance is there to pick you up) is not deemed to be the most negligent act a child caretaker can basically do without physically abusing them then I dont know what is. Human life is the most important thing to preserve in this life, but it seems like tHE justice system in our country is so inconsistent and unbalanced and more concerned on creating revenue and reprimanding the “petty” crimes like small amounts of drug possession. Every case is individual and deserve their own merit depwnding on circumstancesand so on. I’m sure my drift has been caught, and I would love to hear justifications for these decisions and judgements. Who holds the poilce and judgea accountable while they ride their high horses, and soar avove thw laws themselves. Its a blessed thing that most Bermudians have more bark than bite. In other places where the dogs bite, more these judges, police and politicians, let alone anybody else get held accountable. One way or another. And I qould much rather an easier way than a hard. Equal rights and justice for ALL. this lady should be serving time. I hope the sentwnce gets appealed over and over and goes to privy where she gets more time. I guess the saying,”Get away with murder” derived the isle of devils we have come to call home. I could keep babbling about this, I am so dissapointed yet again with our structure in such an important aspect of our wellbeing and survival. Dumb sHat!!! 1 Love, Free up de herbs and let d people meditate on the true meaning of life. LOVE
Bermuda, only place in the world where murders get 15 years and drug smugglers 25+ years. Now a baby dies in someone’s care who left the child alone and drove town to pick up her own adult child and only gets a 9 month sentence. OMG Shame.
Rest peacefully Baby Boy xxoo
Sorry to the parents you have to go through this….