DES MOINES – A North Iowa woman banned from pregnancy due to convictions of child endangerment after violently shaking her baby at least three times has had her sentence vacated, meaning she could get pregnant again.
Defendant Stephanie Flatland – age 25 who has called several town in North Iowa home – appealed her convictions for two counts of child endangerment resulting in bodily injury.
Fatland was charged with three counts of child endangerment resulting in serious injury, class “C” felonies. The State alleged Fatland had shaken her five-month-old baby on three occasions, causing injury to the child. Fatland entered into a plea agreement in which she pled guilty to two counts of child endangerment resulting in bodily injury, class “D” felonies. The State agreed to dismiss the third charge of child endangerment and to stand silent at sentencing.
The district court accepted Fatland’s guilty pleas. The court sentenced her to a term of imprisonment not to exceed five years on each count, to be served consecutively. The court then suspended the sentences and placed Fatland on probation for a period of five years with the conditions, “Shall have no unsupervised contact with children under the age of 5 years,” and “Shall not become pregnant while on probation.”
Fatland filed a Motion to Reconsider a Condition of Probation, stating the court had improperly infringed upon her fundamental right to bear children by the condition on her probation prohibiting her from becoming pregnant. The court denied the motion, finding “temporarily prohibiting the defendant from becoming pregnant is directly related to the defendant’s criminal conduct and her rehabilitative needs.” Fatland then appealed.
The Iowa Court of Appeals determine the district court abused its discretion by imposing conditions prohibiting Fatland from having unsupervised contact with children under the age of five and becoming pregnant while on probation. Her sentences and now vacated and are remanded to the district court for resentencing.
According to court documents which show Flatland was stripped of her custody of the injured boy, after the child’s birth, he was in the intensive care unit until June 2014. After being in his mother’s care one month, the child was rushed to the emergency room where it was found the child had a bulging fontanelle and several retinal hemorrhages, which were believed to have been the result of physical trauma. There were also concerns that the child had gained very little weight while in the mother’s care. Court documents say Fatland initially gave no plausible explanation for the child’s head injuries, but she later admitted she had shook the child after “her anger and frustration rose to a level that she was unable to control her rage.” The child was ultimately placed in foster care.
