Wilmington Lieutenant Returns To Work After Video Shows He Left His Naked 8-Year-Old Daughter Alone In Car Outside Bar
A North Carolina police lieutenant returned to work Tuesday (Jan. 21) after video showed he left his 8-year-old daughter naked and alone in a car while he was inside a bar in October.
Lt. Matthew Malone’s daughter cried out for help and someone heard her and called 911, WECT6 News reports.
The incident occurred outside Ogden Tap Room in Wilmington during the establishment’s Oktoberfest celebration, the news station reports.
While the Wilmington police lieutenant, who was off-duty at the time of the incident, was suspended after an internal investigation, WECT6 News reports he is now back on the job, according to the police department.
WECT6 News fought in court for the release of the body camera video that shows what happened on the day of the incident. Judge Phyllis Gorham ruled in the new station’s favor and ordered the video’s release this month with a few stipulations.
“Judge Gorham ordered the faces and voices of children in this video be redacted,” WECT6 News reports.
The news station argued the release of the video was in the public’s interest after hearing from hundreds of community members after the story first broke in October.
WECT6 News reports, many were concerned that the lieutenant received special treatment in this case as a member of the law enforcement community.
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In the video two sheriff’s deputies approach the car the child is inside, saying, “You aren’t going to get in trouble, buddy. We’re the good guys,” the news station reports.
Shortly after, the deputies learn the child’s father also works in law enforcement, WECT6 News reports.
One of the deputies said, “She says he’s an officer too,” the news outlet reports.
Although the little girl said she’d only been in the car for a short while, the news stations reports, a worker at the bar told the deputies they had seen her “peeing in the middle of the parking lot buck naked” 20 minutes before.
When Lt. Malone came out of the bar where he was with his wife, the child’s mother, he asked the deputy, who recognized him, “Is she not sleeping anymore?” WECT6 News reports.
Malone told the deputies his daughter was "playing the whole time and then she was like ‘I’m going to go to the car and go to sleep’ and I said ‘OK, fine.’” WECT6 News reports.
The lieutenant explained that she was naked because “She was out here before when it was raining and she went up and down the slide a bunch,” and then demonstrated how wet her clothes were by ringing them out with water draining from them, the news station reports.
WECT6 News reports that the case was referred to the Department of Social Services in Pender County, but no charges were filed against Malone or his wife.
Additionally, the news station reports, the sheriff’s office reviewed the case and consulted with the district attorney. The sheriff’s office came to the conclusion that what happened doesn’t rise to the level of child neglect charges.
“The senior ADA who came to the legal conclusion that no child abuse occurred did so without hearing the fact that an officer was involved. Malone’s profession played no role in the decision to decline prosecution,” District Attorney Ben David said, WECT6 News reports.
Upon Lt. Malone’s return to work earlier this week, the police department sent a statement to the news outlet, saying, “We have completed our internal investigation into this matter and have taken the action we deem necessary to address it.”
