NEWS: Buffalo Lil' Post Natal Abortion
Seth C. Triggs
By LOU MICHEL
News Staff Reporter
3/16/2003 A 22-year-old Buffalo State College senior placed her newborn
daughter in a white plastic garbage bag and tossed her into a dumpster
outside her dormitory Friday, police said.
Saturday, Major Crimes Unit detectives charged Colleen E. Smith of
Webster, a Rochester suburb, with second-degree murder and first-degree
assault for causing the death of her child either by drowning in a
bathtub, suffocation inside the trash bag or exposure to the cold in the
dumpster.
Smith was taken to the Erie County Holding Center and is scheduled to be
arraigned today in City Court.
Word of the homicide sent shock waves through the college campus
Saturday as the last remaining students departed for spring break.
Smith's boyfriend, police said, was present for the birth in her
bathroom in the college's Moore dormitory complex, but panicked and fled
after his daughter was born.
Felix Joyner, 22, the boyfriend, later returned from his nearby dorm
room and drove Smith to Erie County Medical Center about 2:30 p.m.
because she was bleeding, police said.
After hospital officials determined Smith had given birth only hours
earlier, they contacted Buffalo State campus police, who began a search
for evidence of an abandoned baby.
Campus police dug through dumpsters and found the child's body in the
garbage bag. The dorm is situated on top of a slope beside the
Scajaquada Expressway.
Smith, police said, had told hospital workers she was giving the baby up
for adoption and the individuals adopting it had already taken the
infant. She told a similar version of that story to her boyfriend before
he took her to the hospital, according to police.
Smith, who is studying to be a dietitian and is employed at the YMCA in
West Seneca, carried the baby to full term, but never saw a doctor
during the pregnancy and had no plans to give birth in a hospital, as
far as police can tell.
Police said she hid the pregnancy from her parents, who were devastated
by the news.
"It's a sad situation for the parents, their daughter and the baby,"
said Detective Charles Aronica. "I really don't know what her mind-set
was at the time. She's an intelligent girl who seems to come from a nice
family. I don't get it."
Smith spoke only briefly to detectives and requested a lawyer after she
was advised of her rights, according to other investigators who
speculated that she may have panicked.
"At first she did not appear that upset, but the more it sank in what
happened, the more and more emotional she became," another detective said.
"This woman had several options. She's not a kid. She could have put the
child up for adoption, kept it or even had a legal abortion, not that I
agree with that," said Detective James Giardina. "She chose the wrong
option, which is something that is going to haunt her the rest of her life."
Smith was questioned throughout the early morning hours of Saturday
after she was released from the medical center. She was charged around 1
p.m. in Buffalo Police Headquarters by Detectives Timothy Salamone and
Deborah Beltz.
Buffalo State students expressed shock, sadness and frustration over the
homicide, noting there is a state law that allows for the safe surrender
of unwanted newborn children.
"I don't understand how anyone could do that. It's a shocker. My
pregnancy was un-
planned, but my son was the best thing to happen to me," said college
junior LaTriece Roberson, who lives with her 1-year-old son, Isaiah, in
a section of the Moore complex set aside for student parents.
"I think it's terrible, especially in New York State where there is the
safe haven law. This happened at an institution of higher learning, and
you would think people would know there are other options available,"
said junior Emily Wilcox. "It makes me sick. They have free day care at
this campus, and there are plenty of families who would have loved that
baby."
The Rev. John C. Weimer, active in campus ministry and director of the
Catholic Newman Center at the college, said the tragedies of society
sometimes enter college communities.
"The college campus is no longer the campus of the 1950s when school
administrators acted in place of parents. The campus reflects more the
city itself, so it is not surprising that what happens in society is
also liable to happen here," Weimer said.
e-mail: lmi...@buffnews.com
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Wow, parenting does make you a good person, eh?
-Seth
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Seth C. Triggs The World According to Lefty
P.O. Box 616 http://www.svamcentral.org
Buffalo NY 14205 AOL IM- SethTriggs • ICQ- 8365635
"Don't drink and park, accidents cause people." — Unknown