DETROIT, Michigan (AP) -- Two 911 dispatchers who authorities say wrongly assumed it was a prank when a 5-year-old boy called to report that his mother had collapsed have been charged with neglect of duty.
By the time an officer arrived, the boy's 46-year-old mother was dead.
"I understand they get quite a few crank calls, but you have to take it seriously when someone calls 911," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said Wednesday in announcing charges against Sharon Nichols, 43, and Terri Sutton, 47.
They could get a year in jail if convicted of the misdemeanor.
Worthy said the mother, Sherrill Turner, might be alive today had the dispatchers done their jobs correctly.
The president of the dispatchers' union did not immediately return a call for comment.
Click here for the article.