A MOTHER’S OUTCRY
DWIs should be weighed in visitation rulings, MADD says
Reporter: John Bryant AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
DATE: January 3, 1990
PUBLICATION: Austin American-Statesman
The Batman video on the bedside television set and the Hulk Hogan figure leaning against 4-year-old Fred Mitchell‘s paralyzed legs give a spirit of heroism to his hospital room.
Children with legs that do not work and pain throughout their bodies need all the heroes they can get.
Mitchie – as his mother Joyce Mitchell calls him – spent 16 days in the intensive care unit of the Children’s Hospital of Austin at Brackenridge before moving into a regular room Wednesday.
His condition is listed as serious, but stable.
Doctors at Scott & White Hospital in Temple performed eight operations on Mitchie since the one-car crash 3 1/2 months ago. Mitchie and his father were driving back to Austin after a weekend visit to his father’s home in Killeen.
Army Staff Sgt. Fred Mitchell, a Fort Hood soldier who has been divorced from Joyce Mitchell since June 6, has visitation rights on alternating weekends and alternating holidays.
Mitchell was indicted by a Williamson County grand jury on Dec. 18 on a felony driving while intoxicated charge. The indictment stated that Mitchell had three previous alcohol-related driving convictions – two in North Carolina and one in Bell County. A court hearing on the December charge has been scheduled for late January.
Joyce Mitchell and officials of Mothers Against Drunk Driving say the accident illustrates what can go wrong when a divorced spouse who has been drinking drives with a child in the car.
Fred Mitchell, contacted at a home of relatives in Beaumont, declined to comment on the accident, his criminal case, or his ex-wife’s allegations.
He is free on a $5,000 bond and recovering from his injuries.
Joyce Mitchell said she had a premonition the weekend of Sept. 15, when Mitchell picked up his son about 6 p.m. Friday.
“Mitchie kissed me goodbye, and told me that everything was going to be OK,” said Joyce Mitchell, who lives in southern Williamson County. “I cried, and I didn’t want him to go.”
The next time Joyce Mitchell saw her son – soaked in beer, she said – he was near death at Ford Hood’s Darnell Army Community Hospital.
“I smelled alcohol all over my baby,” she said. “He said, `Daddy’s beer was wasted all over me.’
“He said his tummy hurt so bad. I said, `Precious, I am so sorry. I will never let that beer get on you again,’ ” Joyce Mitchell said.
Fred Mitchell told investigators he fell asleep as he drove his son and a friend from Killeen through Williamson County on Texas 138 the afternoon of Sept. 17.
Mitchie was in the front seat of the car, wearing a seat belt that caused severe internal injuries, but probably saved his life, doctors said.
“At least it gives us a fighting chance to get him through all this,” said Dr. Robert Ehrlich, director of pediatric critical care at Brackenridge.
Department of Public Safety accident reports said Fred Mitchell had a blood alcohol count of 0.25 when his car ran down an embankment, returned to the road, then slid 500 feet on its side before slamming into a culvert. A person with a count of 0.10 is considered intoxicated under Texas driving laws.
“The visitation laws have got to change,” Joyce Mitchell said. “If there is a past history of alcohol abuse, the court should limit visitations.”
She said several alcohol-related offenses on her former husband’s driving record should have alerted the court to potential danger.
Williamson County court officials said judges handling divorce cases can include orders that alcohol not be used during visits, or require that visits be supervised if a parent has a history of alcohol abuse. No Williamson County judges were available last week to comment on the case.
Edi Moriarty of Mothers Against Drunk Driving said she often receives telephone calls from mothers concerned about the welfare of their children on visits with spouses who drink. She said the Mitchell case was the first she has seen that involved a severe injury.
“It needs to be addressed in court orders for visitation,” said Moriarty. “Sometimes it is, but many times it is not.”
Moriarty said a mother who does not allow a spouse to pick up a child could face contempt of court charges, even if she suspects that a husband may drive after drinking.
Joyce Mitchell agreed. “A mother’s intuition is not enough,” she said. “By law, I had to turn Mitchie over to him.”
John Sampson, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law who specializes in family law, said the state Legislature provides judges with a wide range of powers to write visitation orders that include restrictions when credible evidence is presented.
“With both parties throwing mud, it is hard to tell who is telling the truth,” said Sampson. “And some judges exercise their discretion more than others.”
Sampson cited the case of a rural Texas judge who ordered a mother to pick up her child at the local sheriff’s office, not drink 24 hours before seeing her child, and not be accompanied by a man who had been drinking.
“The conditions are wide open,” said Sampson. “The legislators have given the judges all the direction possible.”
Joyce Mitchell said she hopes that Mitchie‘s paralysis is not permanent, but doctors doubt that Mitchie will regain the use of his legs.
“His spinal column was severely damaged,” said Ehrlich. “His probable outlook is to be in a wheelchair.”
Doctors almost lost Mitchie several times, and he could still fall victim to infection, Ehrlich said.
Mitchie spent 87 days in Scott & White before transferring via Army helicopter to Brackenridge on Dec. 12 to be closer to his mother.
His hospital room is adorned with high-tech monitoring instruments, holiday decorations from what Joyce Mitchell calls a “good Christmas,” and smiling snapshots.
Joyce Mitchell says alcohol-related offenses on her former husband’s driving record should have alerted the court to potential danger to her 4-year-old son, Fred, paralyzed in a wreck while riding with his father.
Copyright,1990,Austin American-Statesman