Wandering towards water at issue in drowning case

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The father of a young autistic girl who drowned after wandering away from home in Michigan City will not serve time in prison.

Andrew Allen, 35, was ordered to spend two years on probation and perform 100 hours of community service under terms of a plea agreement.

He was sentenced Aug. 10 after the guilty plea negotiated by prosecutors and the defense was accepted by LaPorte Superior Court 1 Judge Jamie Oss.

Originally, Allen was facing a potential 20- to 40-year sentence when charged in February with level 1 felony neglect of a dependent causing death.

He was convicted of level 6 felony neglect of a dependent.

In his client’s defense, attorney Jesse Harper said research shows autistic children have a tendency to wander away, especially toward bodies of water, and can be difficult to stop.

Harper also thanked the LaPorte County Prosecutor’s office for taking those findings into account in their plea negotiations.

The girl’s mother, Breanne Smith, 33, is also charged with level 1 felony neglect of a dependent causing death.

Her case has not been decided.

According to court documents, both parents were home when 3-year old Ivy Allen went out the back door of the family’s residence in the 400 block of Long Beach Cove just north of U.S. 12 in May of last year.

The girl wound up at nearby Lake Clare, where she was found unconscious in the water about 45 minutes after Allen reported his daughter missing.

According to court documents, Allen told police he was sleeping when the girl disappeared, while Smith claimed she went to a bedroom while Ivy was in the living room watching TV, police said.

Smith said it was about 15 minutes later when she noticed the patio door open, court records disclosed.

Emergency responders were called about three hours after the parents failed in their efforts to locate the girl.

Authorities said there was a history of the girl leaving the home unattended, which drew the attention of the Indiana Department of Child Services.

A few months prior to her death, IDCS gave the parents an alarm system designed to go off when a door opened at their residence.

The alarm was hooked up when the girl walked out.

It didn’t work, though, because the system was not properly installed, police said.

LaPorte County Prosecutor Sean Fagan said the plea agreement was reached because the evidence leans toward the girl’s mother as being more of a factor in the tragic outcome.

He said Allen also helped strengthen the case against Smith by revealing some of the happenings inside the home in the days, weeks and months prior to the girl’s death.

“There’s a lot of elements on the record that were established regarding drug use, timing and responsibility that we felt did not so much point to Mr. Allen,” he said.

In 2016, Smith delivered a baby testing positive for THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, according to court documents.

Five years later, police said, Smith gave birth to another child testing positive for THC and Subutex.

The baby also exhibited signs of withdrawal from Subutex, often used to treat heroin and other forms of opiate dependence, authorities said.

This seems awfully heavy-handed when it appears that there was a defective product involve, or at least one that wasn't installed correctly. I think that the whole thing was regrettable, but I fail to see how this is any different from any other issue that requires a safety recall. Or, are we going to start prosecuting parents for manufacturing defects in items that they genuinely believe are safe?