By Havonnah Johnson
News 9
A 3 year old gets his mom in trouble with the law when he gets a ticket from police. Now the little boy’s mother will have to pay thousands of dollars for what the toddler did in their own front yard. Dillan is being potty trained. His mother says he wasn’t playing outside and wasn’t near the facilities, so he unzipped.
News 9 was told before he could pee, a Piedmont police officer stopped him. It’s a bathroom break that cost mom $2,500. “Dillan pulled down his pants to pee outside. I guess and the cop pulled up and asked for my license and told me he was going to give me a ticket for public urination,” the boy’s mother, Ashley Warden, said.
“I said really, he is 3 years old, and he said it doesn’t matter,” said Dillan’s grandmother, Jennifer Warden. “[He said] It is public urination. I said we are on our property and he said it’s in public view.” The family lives on two-and-a-half acres and says the street is actually quite rural; but they say the officer who cited them parks at the end of their street daily. So they asked why.
“It’s a public street and he wants to, so he can,” Jennifer Warden said. The Wardens filed a complaint with the police department. The police department didn’t accept the Wardens’ complaint. They have a court appearance set for next month.
“I am disappointed that the officer thinks… what he needs to do with my tax dollars is sitting and harassing our family,” Jennifer Warden said. Warden said as a courtesy, the officer wrote down the cost of the ticket: $2,500. Warden plans on fighting the ticket since she says her son didn’t actually finish the act.
News 9 tried to speak with the police department, but our calls went unreturned. We’re told a judge can throw out the ticket.