Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen said that investigators are conducting followup into the allegations that 28-year-old Jacqueline Michele Shepherd attempted to take a 6-year-old boy from the Library Park playground on Saturday, May 7.
“We are completing all of the followup on the case this week and submitting it to the district attorney for review next week,” he said Thursday.
Shepherd had allegedly been hanging around the playground and, according to witnesses, “acting suspicious” when she befriended the child, pushed him on the swings and then allegedly tried to take him from the playground area, as Lake County News has reported.
Charlotte Mahan, the child's grandmother, said the boy regularly plays at the park – just a short walking distance from their home – and that day was with a cousin and some friends.
Shepherd was reported to have picked the child up, tipped him upside down and played with him before trying to walk away with him, Mahan said. Shepherd also used the boy's name after hearing others use it on the playground.
Teenagers at the park who know the family called to alert Mahan and her family when Shepherd allegedly tried to walk away with the boy.
“We got down there really quick,” said Mahan, noting that the teens had cornered Shepherd.
The family then chased Shepherd into the local Bigg's 155 Diner, Mahan said.
“We made sure she didn't leave Bigg's until the police arrived, and they were there really quick,” Mahan said.
Rasmussen said Shepherd was punched in the face by the boy's mother and kicked in the leg by the child's uncle.
Mahan said she and her family had been contacted by community members who reported that Shepherd had been hanging out in the park for more than a week.
In the wake of the incident, she said the child is fine.
Police initially presented the case to the District Attorney's Office on Monday, Rasmussen said.
In reviewing the case, Rasmussen said the District Attorney's Office asked for some “significant” pieces of followup to be completed in order to determine what charges would be appropriate.
Shepherd – with whom Lakeport Police have had at least one previous contact, according to Rasmussen – had been scheduled to appear in in court for arraignment on Tuesday, according to jail records.
However, Mahan said she and her family found out Shepherd was released from jail on Monday without charges when they went up for the scheduled arraignment.
That concerned several community members and relatives of the child, who commented about the situation on Lake County News' Facebook page.
Rasmussen explained that the district attorney would have had to charge the case within 48 hours, but that the followup investigation needed was going to take longer than that.
Thus, the charges were dropped, which he said was an appropriate decision.
“But that doesn't mean she can't be charged in this case,” said Rasmussen.
Based on news coverage of the alleged incident, Rasmussen said a witness contacted police and provided them information which detectives investigated.
He said police would like to talk to anyone who has information on Shepherd's alleged activities in Library Park during the time of the incident, before or since.
Lakeport Police Department can be reached at 707-263-5491.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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