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Mother arrested for taking phone away from teenage daughter

HUDSONVILLE, Mich. — A Michigan mother, Jodie May, was arrested for stealing after taking away her teen daughter's cellphone.

The Ottawa County prosecutor dismissed the charges against May on Tuesday, but she still has some questions about why she was taken into custody.

"I would like answers on why it got so far and how it got this far where this happened within my home. I'm disciplining my child, then I'm being the one handcuffed," said May.

According to records, May was arrested, on the day before Mother's Day, on a misdemeanor theft charge.

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May says she was nursing her 4-week old baby on May 12 when a deputy knocked on her door. "He had told me that he was going to arrest me, and I asked him if I could turn myself in on that Monday by myself, that I had a new baby. She wasn't taking the bottle yet."

The deputy took her to jail. She was locked up for two hours until she posted a $200 bond. "I was mortified. I was embarrassed," said May.

Ottawa County Sheriff Steve Kempker told WOOD that the deputy who made the arrest was doing his job.

As for the charges, the sheriff says, that's a question for the prosecutor.

May told us she took the iPhone 6 from her 15-year-old daughter in April after the girl got in trouble in school.

Ron Frantz, the prosecutor, said in an exchange of emails that May never told the original deputies that she had taken the phone away to punish her daughter.

May, who is remarried, told us she did tell that to the original deputy after she found out it was her ex-husband who reported the alleged theft. He told deputies that he owned the phone.

But May says the phone belonged to her daughter, because it was a Christmas present from her ex-husband.

Just minutes into the trial, the assistant prosecutor announced it was, indeed, the daughter's phone, not the ex-husband's.

The case was dismissed.

CNN/WOOD

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