Mass. woman arrested for allegedly leaving infant alone in car
WOONSOCKET — A 32-year-old Massachusetts woman was arrested Tuesday because she left her infant daughter alone in a parked car while she shopped inside Walgreen’s on Cumberland Street.
Kiana Mondesir of Cambridge was charged with one count of cruelty to or neglect of a child shortly before 8 p.m.
Police said they responded to Walgreen’s after dispatch received a report of a child left unattended in a blue Toyota. Officer Joseph A. Wasilewski said he found the vehicle in the parking lot of the pharmacy with the child alone inside.
Wasilewski said the vehicle was unlocked, but not running, and the child was in a car seat located in the rear passenger quarters. The officer said he waited at the vehicle until Mondesir emerged from the store a few minutes later after purchasing some toilet paper.
The officer said Mondesir told him she did not see “the big deal” in leaving the child because she was alone, by her estimation, for five minutes. Mondesir told the officer she left the child in the vehicle because she did not have a stroller and didn’t want to carry the car seat into the store.
Wasilewski told her it’s unlawful to leave a child unattended for any amount of time, and particularly ill-advised to so do at a store as busy as Walgreen’s.
The woman told police she was in the city to see the child’s father.
The child was unharmed and appeared to be healthy, Wasilewski said. Mondesir called the child’s father to take care of their daughter after the police took her into custody.
Child neglect is a felony that’s punishable by a term of incarceration of up to three years and a fine of $1,500 under state law, though the judiciary takes into account multiple factors in crafting an actual sentence.