COLUMBUS, Ohio (NEWSnet/AP) — An Ohio woman facing a criminal allegation for her handling of a home miscarriage will not be charged, a grand jury decided Thursday.

Trumbull County prosecutor’s office said grand jurors declined to return an indictment for abuse of a corpse against Brittany Watts, 34, of Warren.

A municipal judge had found probable cause to continue Watts’ case. City prosecutors said she miscarried, flushed and scooped out the toilet, then left the house, leaving the 22-week-old fetus lodged in the pipes. An autopsy determined the fetus died in utero and identified “no recent injuries.”

Watts had visited Mercy Health-St. Joseph’s Hospital in Warren twice in the days prior to her miscarriage. Her doctor had told her she was carrying a nonviable fetus and to have her labor induced or risk “significant risk” of death, according to records.

Due to delays and other complications, her attorney said, she left each time without being treated. After the miscarriage, she tried to go to a hair appointment, but friends sent her to the hospital. A nurse called 911 to report a previously pregnant patient had returned reporting, “the baby’s in her backyard in a bucket.”

That call launched a police investigation that led to the charge against Watts.

Warren Assistant Prosecutor Lewis Guarnieri told Municipal Court Judge Terry Ivanchak the issue wasn’t “how the child died, when the child died” but “the fact the baby was put into a toilet, was large enough to clog up the toilet, left in the toilet, and she went on (with) her day.”

Her attorney Traci Timko said in an interview that Ohio’s abuse-of-corpse statute lacks clear definitions, including what is meant by “human corpse” and what constitutes “outrage” to the reasonable family and community sensibilities.

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