Reader comments
Mother says daughter just tried to help boy who died

she is not at fault. Another prosecuting attorney looking for a high conviction rate?

Lets see, a 14 year old dies from Alcohol poisoning as a result of a 23 year old Woman, who should have KNOWN better. Taking and place him in greater harm by taking him home instead of the E.R. where the Boy would get the proper care in my opinion, has earned the charges placed. Mommy, the helping part would have been the Hospital, not a private residence. Neither of you has an ounce of brain power.
Bill Dikant, Victim Advocate,
Castleton, N.Y. 12033

Bill Dikant -

A 14-year-old did not die as a result of a 23-year-old woman. He died as a result of drinking too much alcohol. Whether or not this woman is guilty of anything will remain to be seen. I do not drink alcohol and I am not familiar with what would be considered a dangerous state of intoxication. Time and time again, I have seen movies where people are passed out drunk and are sent home in a taxi or given a ride and left to sleep it off. I'm not sure that I would have known to take him to the ER either. If she was truly attempting to help him, I don't see how she could be charged as guilty. Hopefully, the courts will be fair and discerning in deciding her fate.

Why is she and not his parents responsible for his actions and where a bouts. So because she took him home rather than just leave him there it�s her fault he dies? Give me a break. One tragedy is enough, we don�t need another one.
Linda Ridley, Take responsibility for your own kids advocate
Layton UT

Do you know what kind of people we are going to become? Don't help anyone at anytime no matter who it is because you will get convicted. Stay homea and do nothing. Nice isn' it?

This poor woman should not be guilty. All she did was help and now they want to convict her for helping come on. They can leave a baby in the car in the heat and he dies, but no charges. and they want to prosecute this poor lady.

I do not think that Candice is guilty of this one. She was doing what anybody else would have done. How many times have all of us been a designated driver, just because you drove someone home makes you responsible... That is not right. Where were the parents when the 14 year old boy was breaking into the restaurant and stealing alcohol* The parents should take responsibility for not knowing where there child was. Candice is not a medical doctor how the he!! would she have known that this kid had alcohol posioning. I think that this case is very disturbing and its already a tragedy due to poor decisions of a group of teenagers and doesn't need to ruin Candice's life. This group of teenagers need to take responsibility for their actions and should be
charged, not Candice.

Bill Dikant,

"Lets see, a 14 year old dies from Alcohol poisoning as a result of a 23 year old Woman, who should have KNOWN better."

She did not provide him with the alcohol nor would she have had reason to believe that he had consumed enough alcohol to cause death since she wasn't with him at the time he consumed the alcohol.

"Taking and place him in greater harm by taking him home instead of the E.R. where the Boy would get the proper care in my opinion, has earned the charges placed."

There was no way for her to know that the boy had consumed enough alcohol to warrant a visit to an emergency room. People and children get drunk all the time and more often they do not die or need a trip to the E.R.

If this young woman had never drank in her life she would not have known how much alcohol was needed to cause death or recognize the symptoms of an alcohol overdose.

"Mommy, the helping part would have been the Hospital, not a private residence. Neither of you has an ounce of brain power."

It is arrogant comments like this that offend.

When a 23 year old woman who is only 9 years older than the boy is placed in the situation of deciding what course of action to take she's not very likely to choose taking someone who appears to be sleeping to the hospital. The article isn't quite clear that she was the responsible party.

It also implies that she was staying at the home of one of the boy's mothers who he had called and who had asked her to go get them and take them back to her home. It would appear from the article that she was only following the direction of an older adult who was responsible for one of the boys.

From the article we can't be sure that the home she was staying in was the home of the friend's mother but it seems fairly obvious that she wasn't alone in the house since someone else discovered that the boy was not breathing.

The question then becomes why that person wasn't charged, why the mother of the friend wasn't charged and why the restaurant owner wasn't charged. Collard didn't pull the idea that the boy's obtained the alcohol from him out of thin air.

Doesn't Utah have a "Good Samaritan" law to protect people like this woman who try to help others but do so less than effectively?

If you flooded every ER in the state with every person that passed out from drinking too much alcohol there would be no room for the people who are having heat attacks, strokes, trauma, ect... I fail to understand why this young woman is charged as she is. She was not a provider to underage drinking. This is another tragic case of poor judgement on behalf of the kids involved who thougt that getting drunk would be fun or funny. When will we start making the kids or anyone else responsible for their own actions. It is always blame someone else cuz I was stupid

Lets forget the fact that she has no medical training, and lets just think about the fact that she is an adult and she was aware of a crime, 32a-12-209 of the Utah Code says it is illegal for someone under 21 to consume or possess alcohol. Legaly she was obligated to contact the police to report the crime. Had she done this the police would have seen the signs of the alcohol poisoning and had the proper medical attention summoned. Whether the charge is the right one, the ethical part is that if she had reported the crime, and not tried to conceal it, which is another crime, the 14 year old boy would have received medical treatment, whether he had lived or died no one knows. I think that is the part that the readers should focus on, so in the future people understand the legal requirements and follow them.

Bill, you're not writing in German. You don't need to capitalize every noun. It makes you look like an idiot.

You should also make a logical case for your viewpoint. As others have stated, the woman in question did not give the child alcohol. Why should she be prosecuted, while those who could have prevented this event from happening in the first place don't even get warned?

The charge against Candace is absurd. She obviously had no intent to do harm. It was an unfortunate accident. I am sure she feels bad enough about the incident without the legal system getting involved and placing blame.

"Yeah, my friend's passed out and we don't know what to do."

"I'm so sorry but I can't be involved."...click.

I know that's exactly what I'm going to do (now).

The article doesn't say he was taken home. He was taken to the house where Candice was staying. A minor child taken somewhere other than to his home or the hospital sounds like kidnapping to me.

"The article doesn't say he was taken home. He was taken to the house where Candice was staying. A minor child taken somewhere other than to his home or the hospital sounds like kidnapping to me."

Sounds like you didn't read the story closely to me.

The friends called the boy's mother. She was not home. It sounds like nobody was home. The mother was out of town. So the 23-year-old should have just dropped him off at home alone?

Kidnapping? Really?

Sheesh!

I don't know about you guys, but I don't see anything negligent here. She went to help someone and from what she could see, all he needed help with is to have a place to sleep it off. She wasn't there to see how much alcohol he had drank. I am willing to bet that the charges get dropped unless there is some signifact part of the story not being told here.

Ridiculous. I hope she gets a good attorney. There is noway she will be convicted.

Charging someone like this with a crime puts a chilling effect on helping someone for fear of being prosecuted.

Candace had a few choices to make and while we don't know the whole story she had three choices to make and made two correctly.
1- Candace gets a call saying some kid needs some help. She chooses to help (right)
2- Candace finds out the kid is drunk. She can choose to leave him there or take him with her. (right)
3 - she takes him home thinking he is passed out and will wake up in the morning instead of taking him to the ER. (wrong - but by innocence - funny word huh!)

I think most honest, caring people would have done the same as Candace. If you knew someone was passed out from drinking, are you going to be checking their pulse? I don't think so. Any decent attorney should be able to overturn the charges against her.