Excellent, long article from the
Dallas News. Some brief highlights to keep to the 10% rule:
From the beginning there has been a community outcry for Sini Mathews arrest. So, why are the police able to arrest her now and not when her husband was arrested?
But on Oct. 23, when Wesley Mathews gave police his account of the night Sherin died, he also told them that he and his wife took their biological daughter to dinner and left Sherin home alone Oct. 6, the night before he said he watched her choke.
Police had the evidence needed to arrest Sini Mathews on Thursday on a charge of child endangerment after corroborating her husbands account with a receipt from the restaurant, phone records and an interview with the restaurant staff.
The police have long wanted Sini Mathews to answer more questions about Sherins death. Can her arrest be used to persuade her to do that?
Prosecutors and police will want to wait to see what evidence turns up in Sherins pending autopsy. But the arrest can certainly be used as leverage against Sini Mathews, defense attorney and former prosecutor Toby Shook said.
She can be prosecuted or, if prosecutors want to shore up their case against her husband, they can grant her immunity from being prosecuted for any crime she may have committed. Then she cant be prosecuted based on her testimony unless she lies.
Can Sini Mathews refuse immunity from prosecution?
Prosecutors use immunity as a tool to force a person to testify and give evidence against another person that they have a greater desire to build a stronger case on, Shook said. They are willing to force immunity on a person to get that evidence on a targeted defendant."
Could Wesley Mathews face additional charges?
He could be charged with another allegation of child endangerment. But because he already faces a more serious charge, prosecutors typically bring up other allegations at the punishment phase of a trial. Wesley Mathews does not have to be charged with a crime for prosecutors to introduce that evidence before jurors if he is convicted. Jurors can be told about alleged "bad acts" and must decide whether they believe the allegations to be true.
What impact will these allegations have on the child custody case and visitation for the Mathews surviving 3-year-old daughter?
Now that she has been arrested and charged, she will not be able to regain custody of her child as long as shes in jail.
As for contact with her daughter, it is highly unlikely she will get to have any visitation privileges.
Marissa Gonzales, a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said that while technically CPS allows children to visit incarcerated parents, it rarely happens.
...
If Sini Mathews bonds out of jail, it is possible that CPS could ask the judge for restricted visitation rights if they believe doing so would be in the best interest of the child, Gonzales said.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2017/11/17/arrest-sherin-mathews-mother-mean-case-father