Parents Arrested After Refusing to Pick Up Child from Hospital, Passing Out Drunk

Miamistandard– A 36-year-old mother in Indiana and her 41-year-old husband were arrested for not picking up their 13-year-old daughter from the hospital. The mother told a social worker that she did not want to handle the situation.
Amanda D. Osmon, the child’s mother, and her stepfather, Jeffrey Scheda, were arrested over the weekend and charged with neglecting a dependent child, according to court records read by Law&Crime.
The event happened on Saturday at Ascension St. Vincent Evansville hospital, located around 165 miles southwest of Indianapolis, according to Evansville NBC station WFIE.
The report says that the teenager went to the hospital by herself in the afternoon for a mental health exam after having a fight with Osmon. After the assessment, the hospital social worker tried several times to reach Osmon, but could not get in touch with him.
The social worker called Scheda around 7 p.m. When the social worker asked Scheda to have Osmon call the hospital, he allegedly hung up on her.
The child had been at the hospital for several hours when the social worker finally reached Osmon around 10 p.m., according to Evansville ABC station WEHT. The social worker told the police that the conversation became tense and finally turned into a dispute about who would go to the hospital to pick up the child.
The conversation apparently ended when Osmon said, “I’m not dealing with this tonight,” and hung up on the social worker. The social worker later told the authorities that Osmon sounded drunk.
On Sunday morning, police officers from the Evansville Police Department visited the suspects’ parents’ house and spoke with them. Police said that both Osmon and Scheda confessed to getting drunk and falling asleep while the 13-year-old was in the hospital.
Osmon told the police that the teen bit her during a fight that day. She also said the hospital didn’t contact her about the teen’s discharge until 2:52 a.m. on Sunday, but she couldn’t provide any evidence to support this.
Both parents were arrested and taken to Vanderburgh County Jail. They were let go after paying a $1,500 bond each. Osmon and Scheda are not allowed to drink alcohol or approach the victim unless they get permission from the Department of Child Services.
Osmon and Scheda are set to appear in court for their first hearings on January 29.