Mom who drove with son on minivan roof gets probation, help
PORT WASHINGTON - An overwhelmed single mother who briefly drove her minivan with her 9year-old son on the roof to hold down a plastic wading pool was sentenced Thursday to three years of probation and ordered to embrace the help of social services.
“This was reckless conduct and when you begin to understand that completely and without justification, you will grow with the help offered,” said Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Sandy Williams, who withheld any other sentence she might impose if Amber Schmunk violates her probation.
Schmunk, 29, of Grafton, pleaded guilty last month to second-degree recklessly endangering safety, a felony charge filed against her in September.
Her lawyer said then that Schmunk’s priority was her children, and she did not want to risk a trial and possible incarceration. As part of her plea deal, Ozaukee County District Attorney Adam Gerol agreed to recommend probation.
“Jail was never on the table here,” Gerol told the judge. He conceded Schmunk struggled as a single mother and called her arrest a blessing because it forced her to accept assistance from social services.
Gerol said Schmunk appears to be a kind, wellmeaning person without drug or alcohol issues but who has been “rather simplistic” in decisions, like the one to let her son ride on the roof of her minivan. “You simply have to do better,” Gerol said. Schmunk’s attorney, Rachel Boaz, said her client was simply overwhelmed trying to provide for her four boys, ages 2 to 9 — one with special behavior issues. When she saw the free wading pool on the side of the road in Saukville last September, she stopped to pick it up, with her kids in her minivan.
Boaz said Shmunk has been jeered in stores and parks since her arrest gained nationwide publicity. Boaz said while two other motorists called police or took a photo after seeing Schmunk, no one offered to help her with the wading pool.
Schmunk told Williams her kids are her life. “It’s always been just me and the kids. If something happens . ... I just don’t even want to think about it.” She currently works from 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at a factory
Wiliams told Schmunk no one questions her love for her children. “But you need to stop focusing on this and look deeper. Until you focus properly, the needs won’t be met properly,” the judge told her.