Woman Who Tried To Flush Newborn Baby Down McDonald’s Toilet Avoids Jail
A coworker called the police after hearing Sarah Jane Lockner flush a toilet containing her newborn baby boy.
A McDonald's employee in Redwood City, California who tried to flush her newborn baby down a toilet after giving birth in the fast food restaurant’s bathroom has avoided jail time.
Sarah Jane Lockner, 27, was given four years of probation Friday after pleading no contest to felony child endangerment for the 2017 incident. Initially she was charged with attempted murder.
Lockner was in the middle of working a shift at a McDonald’s in Redwood City when she started complaining of stomach cramps. Soon after a co-worker discovered a large pool of blood in the bathroom, which Lockner claimed was the result of a "heavy period," according to a 2017 Mercury News report.
Soon after, another coworker reportedly peaked over the bathroom stall and witnessed Locker with a newborn baby that was facedown in a toilet. She heard Lockner flush the toilet and said that Lockner urged her not to call the police. She did anyway and law enforcement arrived on scene to find the newborn, a baby boy, not breathing and without a pulse. He had to be medically induced coma but is now okay, according to the Mercury News.
In addition to being on probation, Lockner has been court-ordered to take parenting classes, SFGate reports.
She says she didn't know she was pregnant.
“Her boyfriend said he did not know either, and none of her co-workers knew,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Guidotti told The Mercury News at the time. “We can all agree the facts of this case are pretty shocking. An infant, a newborn, is incredibly vulnerable. It’s shocking to the community a person would behave this way with a helpless newborn.”
Prosecutors said Lockner gave birth to another child at home about five years earlier and in that case she also claimed to not realize that she was pregnant. It’s not clear who has custody of her two children.