Prosecutors on Thursday, July 16, 2026, dismissed child abuse and neglect charges against a Memphis mother who had been accused of posting images that showed her young daughter assisting with waxes on adult clients. The case first drew national attention after images circulated in early 2024 and prompted a joint investigation by Memphis police and the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. The dismissal closes a high-profile chapter and keeps alive questions about how the criminal justice system handles parenting missteps that explode online.
According to Action News 5, Shelby County prosecutors formally dropped the child-abuse and neglect counts on July 16. The outlet reported the defendant expressed gratitude that the district attorney’s office "understands people deserve a second chance," and that her lawyer said she had completed counseling and community service in the time since the post drew scrutiny. Her attorney also acknowledged the episode as a serious parenting mistake, the station reported.
Background
Police arrested Jasmine Moss in February 2024 after a social media post circulated that investigators said included three images showing a child applying hot wax to adults' pubic areas. CourtTV and other outlets reported the post claimed the child had "helped" wax roughly 24 clients over an eight-hour span, which drew dozens of complaints and triggered an Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force inquiry. Local reporting at the time said the images appeared on an account prosecutors say was used to promote the mother’s home-based waxing service.
Defense response
Moss’s lawyer argued the conduct, while "questionable," did not amount to criminal child abuse, citing the absence of documented physical harm and the family's cooperation with child-welfare investigators. In coverage of the dismissal, Action News 5 quoted attorney Blake Ballin saying that "from the beginning, Ms. Moss has acknowledged that she made a very poor parenting decision." Ballin told the outlet his client had worked on counseling and community service since the incident and that the child remained in the mother’s custody during the investigation.
Legal context
Tennessee law treats child endangerment and related offenses as crimes that typically require proof of harm or imminent danger to a child. Tenn. Code Ann. §39-15-401 sets out elements for child endangerment and related offenses. Prosecutors must show the statutory elements, including the nature and degree of risk to a minor, to sustain charges, a threshold defense lawyers in this case argued was not met. The statute is summarized in Tennessee Code §39-15-401.
Observers say the case highlights how social media can turn private parenting lapses into criminal inquiries and force prosecutors to weigh public outrage against what the law actually requires. Coverage by outlets such as Law&Crime noted defense arguments that "questionable parenting" is not always a crime and that licensing, civil or child-welfare remedies can sometimes address conduct that shocks the public but does not clearly meet criminal thresholds. With the charges dismissed, the mother faces no criminal penalties at this time, even as broader debates about online content and child safety continue.
