Listen to the 911 call: 9-year-old girl caught driving father to store

Listen to the 911 call: 9-year-old girl caught driving father to store
2:23 PM, Oct. 17, 2011



A Brownstown Township father could be sent to prison after police said he had his 9-year-old daughter drive him to the store while he was allegedly drunk.

The 39-year-old man, whom the Free Press is not identifying to protect the identity of his daughter, was arrested after officers pulled over the pair on King Road near Dean in Brownstown Township at 2:46 a.m. Oct. 8, according to the Brownstown Township Police.

The little girl was sitting behind the wheel in a child’s booster seat when they opened the driver’s side door of the full-sized panel van that the father uses for work, Detective Lt. Robert Grant said today.

A Good Samaritan had called police after spotting the pair stopped at a gas station at Telegraph and West. The caller watched the little girl get in the driver’s seat and pull out onto West Road, then followed the van until police could catch up, Grant said.

“She’s like 7 years old, driving,” the Good Samaritan tells the 911 dispatcher, estimating the age of the 9-year-old girl, chuckling on the tape released today by the Brownstown Township Police. “Oops, she’s got her turn signal on and she’s turning right on Beech Daly.”

“Are you sure the child’s driving, sir?” the dispatcher asks.

“Yes,” he replies. “The guy at the gas station couldn’t believe it, either.”

The dispatcher asks the man to put on his four-way flashers as he’s following the little girl on West, approaching King Road.

“She’s driving pretty good, I’m telling ya; I can’t believe it,” the man tells the dispatcher as he follows behind.

Officers apparently catch up with the girl at King Road, pulling across the intersection as she approaches, according to the caller.

“She’s right there and put her turn signal on,” he says, chuckling again. “She just went left. She just went right past your cars – she’s still driving. She’s going West on King.”

The dispatcher thanks the man and they hang up as police then stop the little girl.

The father told officers he was teaching his daughter to drive, Grant said.

“Then he was argumentative with us, that it was his right to teach his daughter how to drive,” Grant said. The daughter told officers her father had been drinking whiskey all night, took her out to drive, then decided to stop at the gas station, he said.

“Very sweet, intelligent little girl,” Grant said. The girl’s parents are separated, and she was with her father for the weekend, he added. After questioning her, officers contacted her maternal grandfather when they couldn’t reach her mother in Lincoln Park. The grandfather picked her up from the police station, Grant said.

At the station, the father refused to take a breath test, Grant said. He was charged with second-degree child abuse, a 4-year felony, and fourth-degree child abuse, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail. He was also charged with being a habitual offender and could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted. The charge stems from convictions on four prior felonies, including receiving and concealing stolen property, unarmed robbery, a felon in possession of a firearm and felony firearm possession, Grant said.

According to the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office, the father was convicted of driving while intoxicated in connection with an October 2007 crash in Wyandotte and had his license restricted for a year, spokesman Fred Woodhams said today. But he has a valid Michigan driver’s license with no points, Woodhams added.

The father’s preliminary examination is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in 33rd District Court in Woodhaven. Judge Michael K. McNally arraigned the father Oct. 10, giving him a personal recognizance bond with the conditions that he not have contact with the little girl and he pay $25,000 if he does not appear in court. A public defender has been assigned to his case, according to court records.

Wayne County Child Protective Services is also investigating the case, Grant added.