Parents leave 2-year-old strapped in car seat for 8 hours April 17, 2013

TAMPA, Florida — On Tuesday evening, officials with the Florida Department of Children and Families arrived at the home where nearly 2-year-old Jadiel Rosario had been left in a vehicle for eight hours. The child is currently at Florida Hospital in critical condition.

Inside the home, the toddler’s mother, Douceaymee Alvarez, doesn’t want to talk about what’s happened with the media, but she will have to talk to state investigators who are looking for answers.

“I heard them saying the baby wasn’t breathing, so I ran up in there and I saw the baby laying on the couch and the father doing CPR,” said neighbor Sharon Scruggs.

Her neighbor is shocked at the news, saying Alvarez is a good mother who constantly dotes on her children. “She’s a good mother, very protective of those kids. I don’t understand how this could have happened. She is very protective of those kids,” said Scruggs.

Alvarez’s Facebook page displays pictures of all four of her children, ages 2, 3, 7, and 8. The father, Alexander Rosario, has a Facebook page as well.

According to the police report, the couple checked on Jadiel around noon and discovered him missing. They told police each thought the other had taken the toddler out of his car seat when they arrived home at 4 a.m. after visiting friends.

That’s when they realize their child was still in the car, eight hours later.

After visiting with the parents for about an hour Tuesday night, DCF officials leave the property, carrying a black backpack and some paperwork.

No charges have been filed, but the investigation is ongoing.

Mom busted for DUI with 3 kids in the car claimed she wasn’t driving April 8, 2013

Marion County, FL (April 5, 2013 – Kimberly Noelle Martin, 26, of Summerfield was arrested just after 4 a.m., Thursday, April 4, 2013, on three separate charges.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office received a call about a drunk driver at a convenience store. A witness told deputies, Martin “came speeding into the parking lot and slammed on the brakes in front of the gas pumps.” The witness could smell the alcohol and could see three small children in the back seat of the car. The witness was able to get the car keys from Martin.

A Marion County Sheriff’s Office sergeant conducted field sobriety exercises, all of which Martin failed. The ages of the three children: 9 years old, 6 years old and six months old.

While searching Martin, the deputies found oxycodone tablets.

Later, Martin blew a .21 on the breathalyzer.

ARRESTED:                 W/F Kimberly Noelle Martin D.O.B:                           11/04/1986

CHARGES:                   Possession of oxycodone

                                        Tampering with evidence

                                       DUI in the presence of children under 18

Mom found passed out; baby within reach of crushed codeine pill, deputies say April 4, 2013

The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office arrested a woman who was found passed out with drugs within reach of her five-month-old son.

Deputies arrived at 4624 Sloan Avenue, Sarasota, just before 8:00 p.m., last night after an anonymous caller requested a welfare check on a child. They found Andrea Keesling, DOB 5/29/70, unconscious and hanging off a reclining chair. Keesling’s infant son was strapped in a car seat on the floor of the home with what later turned out to be a crushed codeine pill about one foot away from him.

The child, who has Down Syndrome, was hungry and in need of a diaper change. After numerous attempts to wake Keesling, she came-to when deputies shook her.

Keesling is charged with Child Neglect, Possession of a Controlled Substance, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Obstruction. Keesling has an extensive criminal history of drug arrests, DUI and prescription fraud. The child is now in DCF custody.

Jenna Porter Killed Her Daughter, Then Herself On Hilaman Golf Course March 28, 2013

Tallahasee, FL – Police say 22-year-old Jenna Porter scored  a hole in two at the Hilaman Golf Course after using a handgun to  kill her 3-year-old daughter then herself.

Golfers playing at the public golf course heard two gunshots around 5pm  Tuesday and went to investigate. That’s when they found Porter and her daughter,  3-year-old Scarlett Porter, dead in a grassy area between the golf course  and the apartment complex where the two lived.

The golfers called 911 and stayed with the bodies until police arrived on the  scene. Police say a handgun was found at the scene and that Porter shot her  daughter once in the head before turning the gun on herself.

“This is a terrible, tragic set of circumstances,” Leon County Sheriff’s  Office Spokesman Lt. James McQuaig said. “Our thoughts and prayers go  out to those left behind because of this tragic set of circumstances.”

One neighbor was shocked at Porter’s actions, stating that she and her  daughter “seemed like normal people.”

“It made me feel sad because she is lying on the ground and there’s nothing  she could do for herself … and that’s kind of shocking,” said one witness who lived at the apartments.

So far there has been no reports on a possible motive behind the single  mother’s actions. However, Porter has been arrested twice in the past year  on driving-related charges. One was for driving with a suspended/revoked license  in August of last year, and another for a DUI she got this past January. Both of  the cases were still open at the time of the shootings.

Woman in stupor as toddler wandered into traffic

PORT RICHEY — A woman was driving on McKinley Drive on Tuesday when a 2-year-old boy toddled out in front of her car.

The woman managed to miss the boy, a Pasco County Sheriff’s Office report says, but when she got out of the car, there was no adult to be found. The woman scooped up the little boy and brought the child to her house, also on McKinley Drive, then went door-to-door looking for his caregiver.

A short while later, the report says, the woman found Nisha Cathleen Prata, 29, in a Xanax-induced stupor. Prata slurred her words, kept falling asleep while talking with the other woman “and had no idea (the child) was out in the street or how long he had been outside,” the report says.

The report does not list Prata’s relationship to the child.

Deputies arrived and arrested Prata of Port Richey on a charge of child neglect.

She remained Wednesday in the Land O’Lakes jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.

911: Drunken mom told cops to scare the s#!% out of her kids March 16, 2013

INDIAN HARBOUR BEACH, Fla. -  A Brevard County mother was arrested after she called 911 and asked dispatchers to sends officers to scare her children, police said.

According to jail records, Melissa Townsend, 27, was arrested Tuesday after making the call to emergency officials about her kids, ages 1 and 3.

“I need a police officer to come out and scare the (expletive) out of my kids,” Townsend said on the 911 call.  “They’re not listening to me and they need to learn respect.  They need to learn that lesson.”

The dispatcher told the upset mother that police would not do what she asked.

“We don’t come out and scare kids,” the dispatcher said.

Police responded to Townsend’s Indian Harbour Beach home and found the mother drunk, officials said.

Police said when they tried to arrest Townsend she kicked an officer in the groin multiple times.

Townsend was booked into the Brevard County Jail on several charges, including child neglect and battery on a law enforcement officer.

Her children are staying with relatives, police said.

She may have been a former model — but she’s no model mom March 13, 2013

She may have been a former model — but she’s no model mom.

Longwood cops say they found a disoriented Aurelia Kambic clutching a crack pipe in a Big Lots parking lot  — with her 2-week-old baby was in the back seat of the car, reports WFTV ABC News-9 in Orlando.
An officer stood right in front of the 32-year-old mom’s car trying to get her attention, but she didn’t even move until the cop knocked on her car’s window three times, according to the report.

Kambic is scheduled for arraignment on April Fool’s Day, inmate records show.

Mom took handgun, stun gun, drugs to middle school meeting March 8, 2013

BARTOW, Fla. – A mother who went to Bartow Middle School for a meeting left the  campus under arrest for carrying a handgun, a stun gun and drugs, according to a  police statement.

A school resource officer was alerted by a teacher  Wednesday morning that Lisa Marie Palmes, 42, had a concealed weapon.  The  officer went to the guidance office, approached Palmes and saw a weapon  concealed in the back of her waistband, according to the statement.

The  officer took the gun.  A short time later, Palmes produced a state-issued  concealed weapon permit, which did not allow her to carry a weapon on a school  campus.

Palmes was placed under arrest and the officer examined the  contents of her purse.  He found “an electronic weapon commonly referred to  as a stun gun, a plastic baggie containing a white powdery substance, a straw  and a pill of tramadol hydrochloride, (for) which the subject could not produce  a prescription.”

According to the statement, the powdery substance  tested positive as methamphetamine.

Palmes was charged with possession  of a firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of methamphetamine,  possession of a electric weapon/device during the commission of a felony,  possession of drug paraphernalia.

She was also charged with two  misdemeanors,including violation of license to carry a concealed firearm and  possession of certain drugs without a prescription.

Mom mailed knife to her kids, ages 7 and 9, to kill grandparents March 6, 2013

GREENVILLE, N.C. – A woman, accused of plotting to kill her children’s grandparents, faced a judge for the first time Tuesday.

31-year-old Leticia Silva of Lakeland, Florida will stay in the Pitt County Detention Center under a $5 million bond.

A very emotional Silva appeared before a judge this morning.

Deputies say Silva told her children to kill their paternal grandparents. The grandparents live in Pitt County and have had full custody of Silva’s daughters for the past 7 years.

Arrest warrants show the children are only 7 and 9 years old.

Investigators say Silva mailed the children a knife in December to carry it out.

“The grandmother actually located a knife in one of the children’s bedrooms underneath the pillow,” said Det. Charles Mitchell, Pitt County Sheriff’s Office.

Silva turned herself in Monday.

She’s charged with four counts of first-degree solicitation to commit murder.

If convicted, the judge says she could face up to 40 years and one month for each count.

The children’s paternal grandparents do not want to speak to the media, but some of Silva’s family drove from Florida for her first appearance.

Tears filled their eyes as they walked outside of the detention center.

They say that Silva and her former in-laws have been in an ugly custody battle for years and they think she was set up. But investigators say they have proof.

And they don’t think the children ever intended to carry out the plot.

“It’s hard to say what a child is going to do. The grandparents have told me that they spoke to the children and neither one of them would carry it out. They said that they loved their grandparents very much,” said Mitchell.

woman accused of leaving children alone in freezing car while she drank in bar March 4, 2013

DEBARY – A Volusia County woman has been arrested after deputies said she left two young children in her car amid freezing temperatures while she went inside a bar to drink.

Cheryn Scaggs has been charged with two counts of child neglect.

According to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, a deputy was driving by the Shotz Sports Bar and Grill, on U.S. Highway 17-92 in DeBary, and noticed a crowd gathered in the parking lot.

The deputy said an intoxicated Scaggs had asked other patrons to help her get home.

Once outside, they saw two girls, ages 1 and 4, sitting in the backseat of Scaggs’ SUV. Deputies said the temperature outside at the time was approximately 30 degrees. “When the deputy pulled up he noted that the car was not on. And that the temperature was around 30 degrees at this time. The woman had even put up a visor on the windshield so essentially make it a little bit harder for people to see in the vehicle,” said Brandon Haught from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies questioned several witnesses who said Scaggs, 30, had walked outside the bar a few times, but never knew the children were in the SUV.

According to one witness, Scaggs said she had left the girls with a neighbor.

Volusia Fire Services determined the children were not physically harmed. Both children were turned over to relatives, and Scaggs was booked Monday into the Volusia County Jail.
At her court appearance Monday a county court judge ordered Scaggs not to have any contact with her children unless it is a through the Department of Children and Families.  The judge also said she is not to consume any alcohol until further notice.