A pregnant woman was jailed for refusing to make her kids take a paternity test. Now she's fighting back.

Heidi Lux
04.23.19

It’s hard to believe that a pregnant woman who hasn’t been accused of a crime could be held in jail for over a month, but here we are.

This world is full of all kind of wrongs that need to be righted. When Adrianna Thurman refused to submit her two children to a paternity test requested by her ex-boyfriend Erwin Rush, she was held in contempt of the St. Louis Family Court and thrown in the slammer for 39 days.

Because Thurman’s case was civil and not criminal, she was held without being charged for a crime, didn’t have access to an attorney, and was not eligible for bond.

Thurman, who was seven months pregnant at the time, wasn’t given access to a doctor until two weeks after she arrived.

She also claims that she wasn’t given an extra mattress and blanket, something usually provided to pregnant women. After she was released, she ended up giving birth prematurely. According to Thurman, her labor was a "direct result of the wrongful incarceration."

During the 39 days Thurman was incarcerated, she was separated from her children plus she lost her job and housing.

Also, postnatal testing found she has Stage 4 breast cancer, something that could have been detected earlier had she not been in jail over a paternity test.

And to top it all off, it turned out Rush was not the father of her children, just like Thurman claimed.

Thurman filed a lawsuit, claiming her civil rights were violated. She says she wasn’t notified that the Family Court Commissioner ordered a paternity test.

She had told court officials that Erwin’s attempts to get apaternity test was so he could stalk and harass her.

“It’s scary,” Chelsea Merta, her attorney, said. “One minute you’re just living your life, taking care of your kids and going to work, and then the next minute police are knocking on your door saying that you’re in contempt for something that you didn’t even really know was happening, and being locked up for 39 days and losing everything. And having your entire world flipped upside down.”

Thurman isn’t just seeking damages. She’s also seeking change.

“There have been all sorts of things that need to be remedied because of this judicial oversight, police oversight, all of these errors that were made on behalf of a system that’s supposed to protect people’s interests, not infringe upon them,” Merta said.

Thurman wants a judgement on whether or not detaining someone on a civil warrant “without prompt access to the judicial system is unconstitutional.”

Thurman’s experience doesn’t have to be repeated.

“At the end of the day, she is entitled to damages under federal law and state law, with regards to what happened,” Merta said. “But then, she’s also dedicated to ensuring that this doesn’t happen to anyone again.”

lop
More

Man pulls off elaborate scheme involving body double to get his overweight cat on an airplane

Facebook / Mikhail Galin

Putting your pet in cargo during a flight isn't always safe. In 2016, the Department of Transportation reported a total of 26 pet deaths and 22 injuries on flights. Because conditions in cargo can be uncomfortable for animals, the Humane Society recommends taking your pet aboard when you fly, or just leaving it at home.

It's not surprising that one Russian man didn't want to put his overweight cat in cargo during an eight-hour flight from Moscow to Vladivostok. What is surprising is the great lengths he took to fly with his four-legged friend.

Russian airline Aeroflot allows pets to fly inside the plane's cabin, as long as the cat weighs under 17.6 pounds and stays in its carrier during the flight. When Mikhail Galin went to check in, he was told he couldn't fly with his four-year old cat, Viktor. Viktor weighed in at 22 pounds and would have to be relegated to cargo.

But Viktor was sick from their earlier flight from Riga, Latvia to Moscow. And besides, Viktor had been allowed to fly inside the cabin during that flight. The airline staff didn't even bother to make Viktor sit on the scales. Galin was unable to persuade staff to bring his fur baby on board.

"To all attempts to explain that the cat won't survive there on an 8-hour flight with the baggage and would haunt her in her nightmares for the rest of her life, she (the Aeroflot staff member) replied that there are rules," Galin wrote in a Facebook post translated from Russian.

Keep Reading Show less
pets airlines travel
popular

There's a scientific (and adorable) reason why babies hiccup, according to a new study

Photo by Kelvin Octa from Pexels

Newborn babies don't seem to do much beyond eating and pooping and, of course, hiccupping. A lot. Parenting advice on how to cure a baby's hiccups runs the whole gamut. It's recommended parents try everything from nursing to stop feeding the baby so much, from giving the baby gripe water to letting the hiccups play their course. But when your baby hiccups too much, you shouldn't freak out. There's a good reason why.

A new study published in Clinical Neurophysiology found that hiccups play an important role in a baby's development. Researchers from the University College London found 217 babies for their study, but only looked at 13 newborns with persistent hiccups. Ten of those babies hiccupped when they were awake, and three hiccupped during their "wriggly" sleep. We have no idea how the scientists got any work done with all that cuteness lying around.

Keep Reading Show less
babies health
popular

Watch Kristen Bell magically rip through 17 Disney songs in 5 minutes with Jimmy Fallon

via The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon / YouTube

Actress Kristen Bell and "The Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon showed off their vocal and comedic chops on Tuesday night when the performed a medley of 17 Disney songs, spanning nine decades, in just five minutes.

The duo started with 1940's "When You Wish Upon a Star" and ended with 2013's "Let it Go" from "Frozen."

Bell will reprise her role as Anna in Disney's upcoming "Frozen 2."

Keep Reading Show less
popular

Women shared how they make sexist men explain their nasty jokes, and it's so satisfying

Twitter—Heather Thompson Day/Naomi Savolainen/Chess Pearson

Ask almost any woman about a time a man said or did something sexually inappropriate to them, and she'll have a story or four to tell. According to a survey NPR published last year, 81% of women report having experienced sexual harassment, with verbal harassment being the most common. (By contrast, 43% of men report being sexually harassed. Naturally harassment toward anyone of any sex or gender is not okay, but women have been putting up with this ish unchecked for centuries.)

One form of verbal sexual harassment is the all too common sexist or sexual "joke." Ha ha ha, I'm going to say something explicit or demeaning about you and then we can all laugh about how hilarious it is. And I'll probably get away with it because you'll be too embarrassed to say anything, and if you do you'll be accused of being overly sensitive. Ha! Won't that be a hoot?

Keep Reading Show less
popular