Toddler's mother charged
By Nita Birmingham (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Saturday, May 12, 2007

A Dorchester County sheriff's detective on Friday arrested the mother of a toddler fatally mauled by the family's pit bull but said the criminal charge of unlawful conduct goes beyond the animal attack.

The Department of Social Services had a long-term involvement with Natasha Wilson's family, Detective John Garrison said, though he declined to be more specific.

"There's so many things involved in this. The animal attack made it a tragedy. The crime still existed," Garrison said.

Unlawful conduct toward a child includes abandoning a child; risking life;,physical or mental health or safety; and inflicting physical harm. It's a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The affidavit states that Wilson put her 18-month-old son, Brian Palmer, at unreasonable risk of harm by leaving him in the care of other young children in a home with a violent animal.

Wilson, 24, surrendered to sheriff's deputies around noon Friday. Magistrate Tera Richardson set bail at $25,000. Wilson made no comment during a teleconference appearance from the jail.

Wilson had gone to see about some rental housing April 23 when Brian was attacked by the 2-year-old pit bull. The 60-pound dog was a stray taken in by Wilson about seven months earlier. Wilson has been a dog groomer for about a year, she told the magistrate Friday. Her cousin said after the attack that Wilson works six days a week.

The dog had gotten out of the utility room in Wilson's Hunters Ridge Lane townhouse in North Charleston and chased a 16-year-old girl who is afraid of dogs upstairs to a bedroom, where it attacked Brian. He died the next day at Medical University Hospital from bite wounds to his neck and airway.

The dog had killed a relative's cat the week before, family members have said. They said the dog was never aggressive toward people and attributed the attack to a dislike of other animals.

Garrison's affidavit addresses the dog's prior aggression but also cites other issues that pre-date the April attack by eight months.

The dog wasn't properly cared for, and had never been examined to determine its health but was allowed to mix with children in the home, Garrison said. In addition to the cat, detectives learned that the pit bull had attacked the dog of a visitor, Garrison said.

Wilson would leave Brian in the care of other children with no adult supervision, the affidavit states. The day of the attack, there were four other children in the townhouse, ranging from ages 2 to 16, Wilson's cousin said at the time.

Wilson's conduct toward the children continued even after repeated visits by DSS, Garrison said.

"This is cumulative. It wasn't one incident," he said. "The dog is not on trial. It's the care or lack of care that led up to the attack."

Wilson could still have faced the charge of unlawful conduct toward a child, even without the attack on Brian, if the issues had come to the attention of deputies, Garrison said.

The Sheriff's Office was never notified of problems in the home, he said.

"It's a DSS judgment call. That's left up to them. They do the best they can do with what they have, just like we do," he said.

The pit bull also could have been declared a dangerous animal under a Dorchester County ordinance had someone told authorities that the dog had previously attacked a cat, Dorchester County Animal Control Supervisor Officer Melissa McKee has said. The dog was euthanized after the fatal attack last month. A rabies test was negative.

The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals asked Dorchester County Council to ban or restrict new ownership of pit bulls after Brian's death. Protesters against banning the breed showed up at Monday's council meeting, but the issue wasn't on the agenda. State law doesn't allow the county to declare a breed of dog dangerous, Administrator Jason Ward said.