LOVE AFTER LOCKUP Michael Simmons found guilty of felony child neglect

Love After Lockup and Life After Lockup star Michael Simmons has been found guilty of felony child neglect in Florida.

A Volusia County judge handed down the verdict on Wednesday after Michael entered a plea of nolo contendere (no contest) to the charge. The neglect of a child statute Michael violated is a third degree felony. He was sentenced to two days in jail with credit for two days time served, which means he didn’t have to spend any additional time behind bars.

Michael was ordered to pay $769 in fines and costs. Aside from the 2-day sentence (which Michael already served when he was arrested) and the fines and costs, there doesn’t appear to be any other punishment. I read through the six-page sentencing document multiple times and there is nothing about probation or even mandatory parenting classes.

It appears that Michael was off of probation from his previous felony convictions in Michigan, so nothing would have been triggered there. Even so, it sure seems like he got off light for a felony neglect conviction involving a child!

I just finished a post about Britney from the current season of Love After Lockup having to pay a total of $2,237 after she was found guilty of misdemeanor assault in Texas in 2011. She was also ordered to complete 100 hours of community service, submit to an anger management evaluation, and write an apology to the woman she struck. That’s WAY worse punishment than what Michael received.

I did some research on sentencing for Michael’s offense and found this information on the website for the Hussein & Webber law firm in Florida: “All criminal offenses in Florida charged as ‘Neglect of a Child’ are classified as felonies. Where the neglect or abuse does not result in great bodily harm (or permanent disability or disfigurement), the charge is a third degree felony, with penalties of up to 5 years in prison or 5 years of probation and a $5,000 fine.”

In case you missed it, Michael was arrested in Daytona Beach, Florida in November of last year. Here’s an excerpt from our post with details from the actual police report:

The very brief summary is that Michael was responsible for watching a young male child (the child’s age was redacted from the report) at a Daytona Beach hotel. Michael left for more than five hours, during which time a witness saw the unsupervised child “rotate from the beach to the pool deck, go into the ocean, pool and Jacuzzi alone, and play with another hotel guests’ child on the beach.”

The young boy eventually approached hotel staff and asked for food. When the hotel manager ascertained that the child was unsupervised, a call to 911 was placed. Michael later told police that he went to get the child “gummy snacks” and his car broke down. As a result, the child was left unsupervised at the hotel from roughly 2PM until roughly 7:15PM.

You can click the link above for more details on Michael’s arrest.

It’s still unclear who the child was and what the child’s relation is to Michael. All of that information is redacted from the court documents. Michael’s estranged wife, Sarah Simmons, did confirm that the child was not one of hers. “My kids were NOT involved!!!” she wrote on Instagram soon after news broke about Michael’s arrest.

Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com