A trial date has been set next June for the father of a toddler reported missing and later found drowned in the Siletz River in March.
Aaron Paulsen appeared in Lincoln County circuit Court on Monday where Judge Amanda Benjamin set a possible trial to begin June 10 on a charge of second-degree child neglect for the death of this 2-year-old son, Dane.
Lincoln County District Attorney Jenna Wallace told KATU News that Paulsen was charged because Dane was in his “care and custody” and allowed the boy to walk out of the house and make his way to the nearby river where he disappeared. Paulsen has pleaded not guilty.
Dane was reported missing on March 1 and was last seen playing in the front yard of his home. A diver recovered Dane’s body in the Siletz River on March 11.
The state medical examiner confirmed Dane’s cause of death was drowning and that there was no evidence of additional trauma to his body.
“This case is very likely to go to trial,” Paulsen’s attorney, Rich Cohen, said during the hearing, according to KATU and predicted there would be 15-20 witnesses.
This is disgusting. Leave this poor family alone. They have suffered enough. There is no shortage of people in Lincoln County who are truly neglecting their children and putting them in harms way. Go after them. This was an accident.