Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 22, 1995                   TAG: 9506220068
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHESTERFIELD                                 LENGTH: Medium

MOM GETS PRISON FOR CHILD ENDANGERMENT

A Chesterfield Circuit Court jury convicted Vicki L. Mosby, 25, in May of child endangerment and recommended the sentence, which Judge William R. Shelton imposed Tuesday.

Mosby and her son George were injured May 23, 1994, when her car veered off a road and crashed into the cinder-block house. The baby was tossed from an infant carrier. Vicki Mosby suffered severe facial injuries and internal injuries.

Police said Mosby was driving with a blood-alcohol content more than twice the limit at which a driver is presumed drunk. She also didn't strap her son into an approved child safety seat as required by law, they said.

Mosby's attorney, Margaret L. Englisby, told Shelton on Tuesday that Mosby, the mother of three young children, is an alcoholic in need of intensive, residential treatment rather than prison.

``In jail, she will not receive rehabilitation,'' Englisby said. ``Anyone whose alcohol content is 0.25, and they were driving, and they had three prior drunken convictions by age 25, certainly needs help.''

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Ginny Duvall questioned Mosby's commitment to seek help. Mosby is scheduled to appear in Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court in September for failing to obey a court order for alcohol treatment, she said.

``Ms. Mosby has been scarred, but it's by her own actions,'' Duvall said. ``A child was injured by her actions.''

Mosby made no comment Tuesday. Englisby plans to appeal the conviction.