Child Abuse Charges Dropped For A Time

Alabama Mobile Charges later re-instated in cases involving five month old twins.

by Steve Alexander

Published: Mon, October 06, 2008 - 8:04 pm CST Last Updated: Mon, October 06, 2008 - 8:44 pm CST

A disturbing development involving a Prichard woman and her boyfriend charged with abusing two babies.
At one point Monday, the cases were dismissed and the two could have been freed from jail.
Marketa Sharpe and Larry West appeared in court facing child abuse charges after Prichard Police said Sharpe's five month old twins suffered broken ribs, broken legs and other injuries.
But Judge Bob Sherling dismissed the cases against both.
The reason: Prichard Police detectives handling the case hadn't signed the necessary paperwork within 48 hours of the arrests, as required by law.
Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson said, "I don't know yet why the affidavits weren't signed. What I do know was that the affidavits weren't signed as of this morning."
With the cases dismissed, Sharpe and West could have been released from jail.
But quick work helped prevent that.
Tyson said, "My understanding is this (Monday) afternoon at 3:00, Judge Sherling has re-instated the cases. The police officers are busily completing the paperwork in the clerks office right now."
When asked if he was upset with the detectives about not signing the affidavits, Tyson, said, "That depends on the reason they haven't signed it. I don't yet what the reasons are."
Tyson said he planned to meet with Prichard's Police Chief Lawrence Battiste to talk about what happened.
But News Five went to the police department Monday to get answers.
When asked why the Prichard Police detectives didn't sign the affidavits on time, City of Prichard Spokeswoman Latoya Veal said, "Basically, it was a miscommunication between our office and the D.A's (district attorney) office. We were working a homicide investigation on Friday, so one of our detectives was supposed to go down and sign it on Friday. So we called the D.A's Office and informed them that we were working a homicide investigation and that we weren't going to be able to make it in time to sign the affidavits, so they informed us that we could do it today, but before our detective could make it down to the D.A's office in time to sign it, the judge had already dismissed the charges."
Sharpe and West are being held on $50,000 bond each.
Tyson said he's been talking with county police chiefs and the sheriff about finding ways to make sure paperwork gets done on time.

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rosepetal Says:

Tue, Oct 07, 2008 at 9:37 am

i know i was being to kind.

Mom2AngelBaby Says:

Tue, Oct 07, 2008 at 9:32 am

Prichard police department is only about five miles from downtown mobile.

rosepetal Says:

Tue, Oct 07, 2008 at 2:11 am

so they can not multi task. what kind of police dept is prichard. it would not have taken that long. maybe 30 minutes to drive 30 minutes to sign and then back again. they have to do better than this.