Tuesday, February 28, 2017

FLORIDA: Last charge dropped against mother of spite-circumcised son

the Palm Beach Post
February 20, 2017

Charges dropped against Boynton mom who fought son’s circumcision

by Daphne Duret
The case of the Boynton Beach mother arrested after she took her son on the run rather than let his father have him circumcised is now officially over.

Prosecutors dropped criminal charges against 32-year-old Heather Hironimus weeks ago after she completed an 18-month program to keep the state from pursuing the case that could have landed her in prison for up to five years.

Hironimus became the subject of national attention after Florida’s 4th District Court of Appeal upheld a ruling forcing Hironimus to go through with a 2012 agreement she had signed allowing the boy’s father, Dennis Nebus of Boca Raton, to have their son circumcised. When she later changed her mind about the agreement, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Gillen ruled to enforce the agreement anyway.

Hironimus took her then 4½-year-old son away in early 2015, a violation of a civil court order requiring her to turn him over to Nebus.

Authorities reunited the boy with his father after Hironumus was arrested in May of that year.

By then, Hironimus had won the praise of anti-circumcision groups around the country, who sparked a small protest outside Joe DiMaggio Children’s hospital after her arrest, when word leaked that Nebus may have taken the boy there to be circumcised. It is unclear when the boy was circumcised.

In July 2015, defense attorney Richard Tendler worked out an agreement with prosecutors on Hironimus’ behalf for her to enter a pretrial intervention program that included a mental heath evaluation, a four-hour parenting course and other provisions.

Assistant State Attorney Craig Williams filed a notice with Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley on Jan. 17 stating that Hironimus has successfully completed the program, so prosecutors would be dropping the single felony charge of interference with custody.

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