Charges Dropped Against Mom Who Took Daughter’s iPhone Away As Punishment


Charges levied against a Michigan mom who was arrested for allegedly stealing her 15-year-old daughter’s iPhone have been dropped by the Ottawa County prosecutor, reports abc7. The mother, Jodie May, told reporters that the shocking incident started when she took her daughter’s iPhone 6 in April after she got in trouble at school. Shortly after the punishment was given out, a deputy knocked on the front door to let her know she was being arrested on a misdemeanor larceny charge.

Jodie May was nursing her 4-week-old infant when the police took her into custody. They placed the Michigan mom in a holding cell before she made a $200 bond a couple of hours later. May had asked the officer making the arrest at the time if she could turn herself in later on Monday since her infant daughter hadn’t started drinking from the bottle yet. The officer refused the nursing mom’s request. She was surprised and outraged at the incident and questioned why it was allowed to escalate that far.

“[I was] just being a mom, a concerned parent. I would like answers on why it got so far and how it got this far where this happened within my home. I’m disciplining my child, then I’m being the one handcuffed,” May told reporters.

Jodie May’s ex-husband was the one who reported the alleged theft of the iPhone 6 in the first place, but the mother said he gave the phone to his daughter as a Christmas gift. To that end, May said that she believed that the prosecutor knew about that the whole time. If he didn’t, “it was an easy question to have answered,” she said.

Ron Frantz, the Ottawa County prosecutor, stated that Jodie May did not tell the arresting officers that she took away her daughter’s phone as a punishment. According to Franz, it was not mentioned in the officer’s report. May, on the other hand, said that she did tell the deputy at the beginning of the arrest.

Jodie May’s arrest was also criticized widely on social media, and Twitter users conveyed their total disbelief and pointed out the absurdity of the situation.

If Jodie May had been convicted of the larceny misdemeanor charge, she was looking at serving up to 93 days in jail. Prosecutors were able to determine shortly after the trial started Tuesday that the father gifted the daughter with the phone and that it did, indeed, belong to the daughter. Sarah Matwiejczyk, who is the Ottawa County Assistant Prosecutor, informed the judge since May was the mother of the 15-year-old minor that it changed her case “significantly.”

The beleaguered mother’s case was dismissed after that and she was able to leave the court proceedings with a clean record.

Share this article: Charges Dropped Against Mom Who Took Daughter’s iPhone Away As Punishment
More from Inquisitr