(KSL, NBC NEWSCHANNEL) An 8-year-old boy was recently abandoned at a Utah hospital holding a note from his mother saying she did not want him, according to police.
The note said: "This kid is rude and ungovernable! I do not want him in my house at all!"
The boy's mother, Kathy Sherrer, 36, of West Jordan, was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with child abandonment, a third-degree felony, and child abuse, a class A misdemeanor.
However, Sherrer said Wednesday that she believed she was simply taking advantage of Utah's so-called Safe Haven law.
"I thought that it was OK that we could drop them off and it was a Safe Haven place," she said. "I wasn't sure about the Safe Haven laws or what it meant. ... I really did not know any other way to go about it."
Sherrer didn't deny the allegations about the note Wednesday.
"In the note, I told them that he was out of control and that he needed more help than I could provide for him," she said.
Sherrer said she is the mother of four special needs children ages 4, 8, 12 and 13. She said she believed health authorities would understand "I was overwhelmed."
"(The idea) kind of behind that was to get him the help he needed from (the Division of Child and Family Services) and to go from there," she said, referring to the decision to leave her son at the hospital.
While there are crisis centers throughout Salt Lake County where parents can drop off a young child if they are feeling overwhelmed or stressed, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said a parent can't just randomly pick a place and drive off.
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