Crime & Safety

Child, 7, Injures Head in Fall on Street, Mother Charged with Felony

A 7-year-old and his brother rolling down a hill a half mile from home was enough for New Canaan police to charge a mother with risk of injury to a minor, a felony.

A Putnam Road mother was charged with risk of injury to a minor after her 7-year-old son received a serious head injury in a scooter accident half a mile from home, police said.

The boy was treated at Stamford Hospital for a fractured skull after the Tuesday, June 10 fall from the foot scooter, and he was later released, police said.

His mother, Catherine Palmer, 42, of Butler Lane was later arrested. She told police that one of her sons told her they were going to play basketball at a neighbor's house.

New Canaan police gave this account (an accusation not proven in court) of the incident and arrest:

Police responded to a 911 call at 6:51 p.m. about a young boy lying on the side of Putnam Road and came upon the boy and his 9-year-old brother at the scene. The road is steep. The boy was near the road's intersection with White Oak Shade Road.

The 7-year-old had scrapes and bruises, but the worst of the injury was to his head. He wasn't wearing a helmet.

One or both of the boys told police that they often use a scooter down the hill at that part of Putnam Road, about half a mile away from their home. (The scooter was not motorized.)

The boys' mother was at home at the time of the accident.

On June 13, police applied for and a judge approved an arrest warrant charging the mother with two counts of risk of injury to a minor, a felony — one count for each of the boys. The Connecticut Department of Children and Families was notified — a regular New Canaan Police Department procedure in similar cases.

Palmer was released on $5,000 bond and is scheduled to appear June 23 in state Superior Court in Norwalk.


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