From the local news ...
Dad's Oversight Lands Son In Foster Care
POSTED: 10:44 am EDT April 28, 2008
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- An Ann Arbor couple's 7-year-old son ended up in foster care over Mike's Hard Lemonade.
Christopher Ratte, 47, a professor at University of Michigan, claims he accidentally gave his son, Leo, some of the alcoholic beverage at Comerica Park a few weeks ago. He said he didn't even know the alcoholic lemonade existed.
He said he bought his son the drink at the beginning of the Tigers game and it wasn't until the ninth inning when a security guard noticed the bottle in Leo's hand.
The security guard asked Ratte if he knew it contained alcohol. He said he didn't and when he went to grab the bottle out of the child's hand, the security guard grabbed it first.
A short time later, Ratte was being questioned by Detroit police at Children's Hospital, where the child was taken by ambulance.
The child said he was feeling a little nauseated, but showed no other symptoms of being intoxicated.
The security guard said the boy drank about 12 ounces of the hard lemonade, which is about 5 percent alcohol.
However, the child's bloodwork detected no trace of alcohol.
The child remained in foster care for two days before his mother, Claire Zimmerman, a U-M architecture professor, was able to take their son home as long as the father relocated to a hotel.
It was two more weeks before the father could move back home.
Ratte and his wife have filed a formal complaint with the Child Protective Services ombudsman's office stating they thought the treatment was excessive.
Ratte has apologized for his mistake.
Personal note: Ignorance is NO excuse! I have never been to Comerica Park, but wouldn't Mike's Hard Lemonade be on an Alcohol menu board? What did this airhead not comprehend about the word HARD on the label??
KUA
I think I've talked to him on the phone =)
ReplyDeleteYEP! There's ANOTHER ONE that shouldn't be allowed to BREED!!!
ReplyDeletei have to admit, especially as a non drinker, i had no idea what "hard" meant either, because alcohol and lemonade just don't go together in my mind and there are some wierd names out there for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages anyways. i would've thought hard meant a lot of pucker power or something, certainly not that someone had spiked lemonade in front of me. nor would i be looking all over the bottle to see what was in it--it's lemonade! and i have been to concerts where the beverages are all listed on the same board (usually colas grouped together and then beers) and i can imagine them putting "hard lemonade' in between the groupings. and he tried to take it away from the kid, not tell the guard to shove off or anything like he would've if he didn't care his kid drank. so......i'm gonna defend him, i woulda probably made the same mistake. and i will claim ignorance as an excuse.
ReplyDeleteLOL, Amy ... The News said that the father was cleared of all charges. I still say ignorance isn't an excuse - BUT at the same time someone should be held accountable for a minor getting that alcohol. I realize mistakes can and do happen ... luckily the boy showed no ill effects from it.
ReplyDelete