Holly MatkinAugusta, GA – A pregnant South Carolina mother has been cited for disorderly conduct for allowing her three-year-old son to urinate in a parking lot instead of taking him to a restroom.
The incident began as Brooke Johns and her son, Cohen, were driving down Sandbar Ferry Road on March 29, WRDW reported.
“He’s like, ‘Mom, I’ve got to pee. I’ve got to pee!’” Brooke told the news outlet. “I was like, ‘Well, hold on,’ and he’s like, ‘No! I’ve GOT to pee! I’ve got to REALLY pee!’”
Brooke, who is just weeks away from giving birth to a daughter, told her son that there wasn’t a restroom nearby.
“And he says, ‘Momma, I’m about to pee in my pants!’” she recounted.
Brooke managed to pull into a gas station parking lot, but determined there was not enough time to get Cohen to the bathroom inside.
She said that carrying him wasn’t an option due to her pregnancy.
Instead, she allowed the little boy to urinate in the gas station parking lot.
“He was peeing before his pants were even all the way down, so obviously he had to go,” she told WRDW.
A Richmond County deputy witnessed the events, and told her she should have taken Cohen in to the bathroom.
But Brooke said that she was out of options.
“What if I would have ran in the bathroom and someone had been in there? What I was going to let him do? Pee on the floor of the gas station?” she asked.
The deputy ultimately cited her for disorderly conduct.
“She allowed her male child to urinate in the parking lot,” he wrote on the ticket. “I observed the male’s genitals and the urination. Public restrooms are offered at the location.”
Brooke’s court hearing has been scheduled for April 30, just prior to her pregnancy due date.
She faces up to 60 days in jail and a $5,000 fine if she is convicted, KNXV reported.
Blue Lives Matter asked Richmond County Sheriff’s Office to provide their version of events, but they did not respond to a request for comment.