A homeless mother who pleaded guilty to fraudulently enrolling her six-year-old son in the wrong school district has been sentenced to five years in prison.
According to Graham Smith with Daily Mail, Tonya McDowell sent her son to an elementary school in Norwalk, Connecticut, instead of her home city of Bridgeport.
The 34-year-old, who was homeless when she was charged with felony larceny last year, said she wanted the best education possible for the boy.

McDowell entered her plea at Norwalk Superior Court under the Alford Doctrine, which means she does not admit guilt but concedes she does not believe she will win the case.
Even though she was homeless, authorities said that she used a babysitters address to enroll her son in kindergarten in Norwalk when he should have attended schools in Bridgeport, her last permanent address.
Her case drew national attention and support from civil rights leaders and other advocates who wanted the charge dismissed.
The 34-year-old, who was homeless when she was charged last year, said she wanted the best education possible for her son.
McDowell told police she was living in a van and occasionally slept at a Norwalk shelter or a friends Bridgeport apartment when she enrolled her son Norwalks Brookside Elementary School.
Police accused McDowell of stealing $15,686 worth of free educational services from Norwalk.
Smith also reports, McDowells lawyer, Darnell Crosland, said she agreed to accept a plea bargain rather than continue fighting the charges even though she insists she is not guilty.
Mr Crosland said: You shouldnt be arrested for stealing a free education. Its just wrong.
Why is a homeless lady being treated this way? If she lives in a van and sometimes stays in Norwalk, then how can they accuse her of stealing a free education? This isnt justice! This is taking away an opportunity for the son of a homeless woman and unjustly imprisoning someone who wants opportunities for her son.
#1: BorisY To: Deckard (#0)
doesn't
like
school
choice
vouchers
maybe
more
planned
parenthood
education
could
work
these
things
out
that 's
all
these
people
seem
to
care
about
the
woman's
right
to
abort
choose
human
rubbish
slavery
President
trump
could
help
these
people
Make
America
great
free
love
again
boris
BorisY posted on 2016-09-06 21:49:26 Reply Private Reply
#2: buckeroo To: Deckard (#0)
buckeroo posted on 2016-09-06 21:58:12 Reply Private Reply
#3: Gatlin To: Deckard, misterwhite, nolu chan (#0)
A homeless mother who pleaded guilty to fraudulently enrolling her six-year- old son in the wrong school district has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Tanya McDowell was arrested in April 2011 for enrolling her six-year-old son in the wrong school district during a period of homelessness.
Tanya McDowell was NOT sentenced to five years in prison FOR enrolling her six-year-old son in the wrong school district during a period of homelessness.
Besides being arrested for enrolling her six-year-old son in the wrong school district during a period of homelessness, several weeks later Tonya McDowell was also arrested for more serious offenses involving drugs and prostitution. She was picked up on drug charges when police found her in front of Brookside Elementary School holding 30 small bags of marijuana and 23 small bags of crack cocaine, prosecutor Tiffany Lockshier said during her sentencing hearing. Judge Frank Iannoti said that the Norwalk case (arrest for enrolling her son in a Connecticut school) had nothing to do with why McDowell ws before him. He said to her: "This case is about the convictions for the sale of narcotics to an undercover police officer. I think you understand that because that is really the essence of what has gotten you into the predicament you find yourself today."
In Bridgeport, McDowell pleaded guilty to two counts of sale of narcotics to undercover officers in Bridgeport and when she is sentenced faces up to five years in jail for those convictions.
Gatlin posted on 2016-09-07 06:33:47 Reply Private Reply
#4: Gatlin To: buckeroo, Deckard (#2)
Yellow Journalism always is bizarre since it is based on half truths and lies for the purpose of channeling a person towards a false conclusion. Those who read Yellow Journalism and then take the bait to believe the half truths and lies are idiots.
Gatlin posted on 2016-09-07 06:50:40 Reply Private Reply
#5: Deckard To: buckeroo (#2)
Charged with stealing a free education - totally bizarre.
Deckard posted on 2016-09-07 07:26:21 Reply Private Reply
#6: Deckard To: Gatlin (#3)
More verbal diarrhea from the site's pompous ass.
Deckard posted on 2016-09-07 07:28:03 Reply Private Reply
#7: Gatlin To: Deckard (#6)
Stick with the facts:
Gatlin posted on 2016-09-07 07:58:16 Reply Private Reply
#8: Gatlin To: Deckard (#5)
The money for public schools comes from TAXPAYERS....it is NOT FREE!
Gatlin posted on 2016-09-07 08:01:25 Reply Private Reply
#9: nolu chan To: Deckard (#5)
This is another one of your cluster foxtrots.
She committed a crime by submitting a fraudulent application for kindergarten. Basically, the entire story is bullshit from 2011-2012.
Graham Smith did write a story in the Daily Mail, last "Updated: 10:21 EST, 1 March 2012."
She did not live at the babysitter's address. She did not live in Norwalk.
Another pantsload..
She took an Alford Plea. It is not a doctrine, it is a form of plea agreement. It involves more than a concession that she will not win the case. Taking an Alford Plea involves pleading guilty. She pleaded guilty. The plea let her serve the larceny sentence concurrently with her separate sentence for selling drugs. The schooling involved was kindergarten.
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/400/25/case.html
- - - - - - - - - -
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Affidavit-Tanya-McDowell-offered-to-sell-drugs-1421618.php
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/5-years-in-prison-for-Tanya-McDowell-3350071.php
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Tanya-McDowell-sentenced-to-5-years-in-prison-3437974.php
nolu chan posted on 2016-09-07 08:39:51 Reply Private Reply
#10: Justified To: Deckard (#0)
Its the old adage. You can take the person out of the trailer park but you can not take the trailer park out of the person.
BTW I do not blame her for wanting something better for her kids. I have seen some really smart good people come from really bad areas but it takes some really tough love by the parents because gangsta training is everywhere to destroy society. Example gangsta training in actions look at Colin Kaepernick who has had the best of everything and has been suckered into the gangsta world thinking!!
Justified posted on 2016-09-07 08:42:24 Reply Private Reply
#11: misterwhite To: Gatlin (#7)
"Homeless Mother Who Sent Six- Year-Old Son To Better School In The Wrong Town Sent To Prison For Five Years for selling drugs"
The last part was accidentally left off.
misterwhite posted on 2016-09-07 10:04:04 Reply Private Reply
#12: Gatlin To: nolu chan, Deckard (#9)
Incredible....absolutely INCREDIBLE!
Gatlin posted on 2016-09-07 10:19:28 Reply Private Reply
#13: nativist nationalist To: Gatlin (#3)
nativist nationalist posted on 2016-09-07 11:46:51 Reply Private Reply
#14: Gatlin To: nativist nationalist, Deckard (#13)
After learning of her criminal history, Deckard still wants to defend her actions.
Amazing !
Gatlin posted on 2016-09-07 12:26:12 Reply Private Reply
#15: nolu chan To: Justified (#10)
This was kindergarten. She was getting free day care where she wanted to sell her drugs and whore her whores, in a better neighborhood.
nolu chan posted on 2016-09-07 14:05:24 Reply Private Reply
#16: buckeroo To: Deckard (#5)
Not at all. She has tried to ensure the best education for her child under extraordinary conditions and is rebuffed by a cold, callous school bureaucracy. To me, it appears she didn't fight city hall hard enough. If she is actually sentenced, she stands no chance to continue her fight.
buckeroo posted on 2016-09-07 21:21:48 Reply Private Reply
#17: Gatlin To: buckeroo (#16)
Tanya McDowell, who became a sympathetic national figure after being charged in April with stealing the education of her young son from the Norwalk school district, offered a Stamford undercover officer crack cocaine, marijuana and the use of prostitutes McDowell was pimping from her aunt's home in Bridgeport, according to warrants for her arrest.
Police sources told The Advocate that McDowell took a break from her son's birthday party in late May to sell drugs to an undercover officer at the home on Dover Street in Bridgeport.
According to three Norwalk arrest warrants, McDowell, who claimed to be homeless while sending her son to school in Norwalk, sold drugs to officers in Norwalk on three occasions between May 27 and June 3.
She also allegedly told the undercover officer she was living with her aunt on Dover Street, and he was welcome to party at the house and enjoy the services of two women McDowell was pimping out.
[...]
In November, McDowell was arrested in Norwalk for being in possession of marijuana and crack cocaine.
Because police found her in possession of dozens of individually packaged baggies containing the drugs, she was charged with possession with intent to sell. She has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Ten years ago, McDowell, was convicted of robbing a Trumbull bank, and in a separate incident, of being in possession of a pistol. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Tanya McDowell, the Bridgeport mom arrested last April for sending her 5-year- old son to a Norwalk elementary school and while out on bond was picked up for selling drugs to undercover officers five times, was sentenced to five years in prison and another five years of probation after pleading guilty to drug and larceny charges Wednesday.
Gatlin posted on 2016-09-07 21:36:02 Reply Private Reply
#18: buckeroo To: Gatlin (#17)
Despite ALL your BS, society loses. You are as much a loser as she is, pal.
buckeroo posted on 2016-09-07 21:43:32 Reply Private Reply
#19: Gatlin To: buckeroo (#18)
Gatlin posted on 2016-09-07 22:25:47 Reply Private Reply
#20: buckeroo To: Gatlin (#19)
buckeroo posted on 2016-09-07 22:52:41 Reply Private Reply
#21: Gatlin To: buckeroo (#20)
Thank you for your contribution.
I appreciate spending your money.
Gatlin posted on 2016-09-07 23:09:25 Reply Private Reply
#22: nolu chan To: buckeroo (#16)
She pleaded guilty and was sentenced in February and March 2012 to the drug charges and then on the larceny charges.
nolu chan posted on 2016-09-08 00:22:27 Reply Private Reply
#23: buckeroo To: nolu chan (#22)
buckeroo posted on 2016-09-08 00:42:42 Reply Private Reply
#24: nolu chan To: buckeroo (#23)
The son went to the grandparents.
nolu chan posted on 2016-09-08 12:15:56 Reply Private Reply
#25: buckeroo To: nolu chan (#24)
buckeroo posted on 2016-09-08 12:18:47 Reply Private Reply
#26: nolu chan To: buckeroo (#25)
I believe you, because i know you are sincere.
nolu chan posted on 2016-09-08 12:23:31 Reply Private Reply
#27: VxH To: Deckard (#0)
"EDUCATE THE COMMON PEOPLE
THIS IT IS THE BUSINESS OF THE STATE TO EFFECT
AND ON A GENERAL PLAN"
--
Thomas Jefferson
VxH posted on 2016-09-09 11:49:22 Reply Private Reply
#28: BorisY To: buckeroo, yukon, gatlin, freddolt, hondolt, painedolt (#14)
drug
warriors
criminal
insane
loved
boris
BorisY posted on 2016-09-09 15:13:57 Reply Private Reply
#29: Hondo68 To: BorisY, yukon, wrong link (#28)
You can see yukon from Russia!
Hondo68 posted on 2016-09-09 18:11:02 Reply Private Reply
#30: BorisY To: buckeroo. yukon. gatlin, hondorapedope (#29)
jerks
a
steaming
load
in
burning
bag
ringing
door
bells
wasn't
even
funny
when
I
was
a
preteen
BorisY posted on 2016-09-09 18:17:46 Reply Private Reply