A foster mother charged with criminal negligence causing the death of an Aboriginal toddler has been found not guilty.
In rendering his decision Friday, Justice Neil Gabrielson said although Eunice Wudrich failed to provide proper care when 22-month-old Evander Lee Daniels of Sturgeon Lake First Nation drowned in a bathtub in her home on June 8, 2010, she did not cause his death or show wanton or reckless disregard for his safety.
Speaking outside of court, Sturgeon Lake First Nation Chief Wesley Daniels says the community is very disappointed with the decision and what it means for other foster children.
“(Children) are going to be in danger with this decision,” he says. “They are not going to get the proper care they require. We want to see the transcripts of the judge’s decision and then we will take it from there.”
A visibly shaken Chris Martell, Evander’s father, says this was not the decision he was expecting and it is going to take sometime to sink in.
Over the course of the trial, court heard Wudrich was looking after six children, including five foster children under the age of five, in a small three-bedroom bungalow in Aberdeen at the time of Evander’s death.
The number of foster children in the home was described by Saskatchewan social services officials as “over capacity” or a “crisis situation.”
Eunice Wudrich and her husband Dennis had requested a resource worker from the government department to help with the situation and the request had been granted.
However, social services had not approved a background check on a worker that had been found to work in the home prior to Evander’s death in June, 2010.
Court also heard that Eunice Wudrich had left Evander unattended in a bathtub with about two inches of water on the day of his death.
She said she had left to attend to bruises on the leg of another child.
Over the course of the trial, it was never determined exactly how long Evander was left alone.
The Crown contended it may have been as long as an hour but Wudrich and her husband Dennis estimated it was between five and ten minutes.
In his decision, Justice Gabrielson said the Crown had failed to prove Wudrich had left Evander unattended for the extended length of time and the foster mother was not acting in an unreasonable way when she left the bathroom to attend to the other child.
A pathologist who testified at the trial said although the child had scalding burns from a hot water tap that was running when he was found, the cause of death was drowning which likely occurred within four to six seconds when he inhaled a large mouthful of water.
The trial took place at Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatoon.