A US woman whose own skin is deeply bronze-coloured from regular visits to a tanning salon has been accused of taking her five-year-old daughter into a tanning booth in violation of New Jersey state law, burning the girl's skin.
Through her lawyer, Patricia Krentcil, 44, entered a plea of not guilty on Wednesday in Superior Court to a charge of child endangerment. New Jersey law bars anyone under 14 from using a tanning salon.
Prior to the hearing, Krentcil called the accusation a lie.
"It's all made up," she said.
She told The Associated Press her daughter got sunburned by being outside on a recent warm day. She said her daughter, however, had mentioned to school officials when she complained of itching that she had been to a tanning salon with her mother.
Krentcil had told various TV stations her daughter was in the room at the salon but not in the stand-up tanning booth.
Her lawyer, John Caruso, said outside court that Krentcil will be exonerated, because the evidence will show the child never entered the booth.
"Forget about the presumption of innocence; my client is 150 per cent innocent," Caruso said. "She loves that child more than her whole life. She would never, ever allow her child to go inside a tanning bed."
The child is still living at home with her mother, Caruso told municipal court judge Roslyn Holmes-Grant, though he said the state's child welfare agency is monitoring the family.
Krentcil said she loves tanning and has visited salons for many years but would not do anything to jeopardise her daughter's health.
"Never in my life would I endanger my child by putting her in a tanning booth. I'm not dumb," she said before her scheduled hearing. Outside court, she called herself "a wonderful mother."
Police said they were called to the child's school April 24 because the kindergartener was in pain from a "pretty severe sunburn."
Krentcil remained free on a $US2500 ($2400) cash bond. She is scheduled to make her next court appearance on June 4.
I wanted to post this first, but was too busy at work to get it done.
That woman is obviously severely
Loves her kid a lot, huh? Too bad she won't be around to see her graduate HS.
She's only 40-something.
Sick, and sad. Addicted to the 'high' from the 'sun'? Get a full spectrum light to treat your SAD.
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 2:17 am
by Scooter
She looks like she's in blackface.
Someone must have been playing with the lighting when they took that picture. I can't imagine how skin would turn that colour unless subjected to a nuclear blast.
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 2:21 am
by BoSoxGal
Have you ever been in a tanning booth?
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 2:29 am
by Scooter
Frequently. I can't stand looking pasty and can't spend anywhere near enough time outdoors to get tanned without burning. But I've never come out looking like I was turning on a spit over a barbecue.
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 2:31 am
by Gob
Scooter wrote:But I've never come out looking like I was turning on a spit over a barbecue.
Not done a spit roast then?
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 3:09 am
by BoSoxGal
For the first time I find myself disappointed in you, Scooter.
Those things are deadly. You don't really need to ramp up your chances of developing melanoma, do you?
Fair skin is lovely, but if you don't like it, try a self tanner. After all, a little 'product' is entirely acceptable. I learned that on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
Seriously, she has probably been tanning daily for years. Imagine the cost! Should be investing it in Jr's higher education fund.
My aunt Pauline looked nearly that bad in her late 40s; this was before tanning beds, but she used to use one of those reflector gizmos and she'd tan herself crisp brown, starting early in the year when she had to sit outside in a coat and doing the same into fall.
She looked like an old shoe. So does this woman; well, more like a really old riding boot.
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 3:25 am
by oldr_n_wsr
Words escape me.
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 3:33 am
by BoSoxGal
Holy fucking talking leather sofa! Who fucks that?!?!
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 3:45 am
by The Hen
O ... M ... G.
That is horrific.
I thought when I saw the picture she was going to be suing the tanning clinic for faulty machines that had turned her into this Bisto-baked fool.
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 6:46 am
by loCAtek
Obviously, 'fake tan' from a bottle, for the interview. White people don't tan that dark, without burning.
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 6:54 am
by Scooter
A bottle of what, shoe polish? Self-tanners don't make people that colour. Or give their skin the consistency of leather.
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 7:09 am
by The Hen
When I was a chappette of a young age, I could get away with saying my heritage was Maori and I was in fact a 1/4 caste Maori. I have an olive complection and tan deeply when exposed to the sun (or a sun bed).
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 11:34 am
by Guinevere
Wow, that cannot be natural. And it's hideous.
Scooter, one word: bronzer.
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 12:30 pm
by The Hen
Guinevere wrote:Scooter, one word: bronzer.
Well, you have to look your best for the telly and the papers.
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 2:42 pm
by Big RR
Actually it looks like she got into Al Jolson's makeup.
And as for the kid, contrary to the claims of the tanning police, I doubt she's been in a tanning bed. Just another "official" spouting off. This woman seems to be a nut, but it doesn't seem like she's passing it on to her kid.
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 6:42 pm
by oldr_n_wsr
Big RR wrote:This woman seems to be a nut, but it doesn't seem like she's passing it on to her kid.
Yet.
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 10:00 pm
by BoSoxGal
Too funny; in one of the comments on DM somebody suggested she looks like she spread marmite all over her face!
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 10:50 pm
by Jarlaxle
She looks like she painted her face with copper-colored model paint. Hideous.
Re: Browned off.
Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 10:58 pm
by Gob
bigskygal wrote:Too funny; in one of the comments on DM somebody suggested she looks like she spread marmite all over her face!
