INDEPENDENCE, Mo. – Carrie Waldo was sentenced to 30 days of ‘shock time’ in jail on Friday after failing to comply with a judge’s order to enter a drug treatment program in June. Waldo, 26, will spend the next 30 days in jail, 30 days after that in an in-patient drug treatment program and must also fulfill two years of probation after pleading guilty to a child endangerment charge.
Waldo’s four-month-old child had seven of his fingers chewed off by a pet ferret in January of 2011. Waldo admitted that she put the child in danger by allowing the ferret to be near the baby, even after the ferret had previously bit the child.
Under the terms of her probation, Waldo must keep a clean record or she will spend one year in jail. Judge Michael Manners also ordered that she is not allowed to have contact with any of her five children or any contact with children less than 17-years-old without parental approval.
Investigators said that when they were initially called to the home the boy only had two thumbs and part of a pinkie finger remaining between both of his hands. Waldo and her husband, Ryan, said they were asleep in the next room, though investigators said that text messages indicated they may have not been home when the incident happened.
When Waldo initially pleaded guilty, her charge was reduced to a misdemeanor. Prosecutor Alison Dunning said that the baby boy was in custody of adoptive parents and said that was the best punishment for Waldo.
