La Porte mother charged a third time

She was sleeping when autistic son, 5, was found wandering

The La Porte mother of an autistic son who had child endangerment charges dismissed twice last year was charged again after the 5-year-old was found wandering last week.

Emilia Aguilar, 41, faces a felony count of endangering a child filed on June 27 by the La Porte Police Department. Aguilar has surrendered to authorities and was released early Saturday on $2,000 bail.

The status of the case going forward is unclear, however, since on Saturday it was marked “inactive” in the Harris County District Clerk’s records. The previous charges against her in August 2015 were thrown out.

The latest case again involves her son, who was found by a woman in the 3800 block of Driftwood in La Porte about 10:30 a.m. on June 25.

The woman who called authorities discovered the child walking unsupervised down a sidewalk toward a four-lane highway, according to court records.

The probable cause statement on the criminal complaint states that the child was placed “in imminent danger of bodily injury or death.”

The police officer also wrote that the boy was “dirty, walking barefoot on hot cement” and had special needs. The child, who was known to local authorities as autistic, was less than one mile from his home.

Police contacted child welfare authorities, and the boy was transported to a Houston Children’s Protective Services office.

The complaint states that authorities went to the boy’s home and spoke to Aguilar, his mother, who said “she was asleep and has no idea her son had left the residence.”

In an interview on Friday with KTRK-TV, Aguilar said she is a single mother of five children.

“I’m not a bad mom,” she told the television station, adding that the boy has special needs but is smart and independent. “It’s exhausting, but it’s my job and it’s OK. But to be ridiculed like I have been, being made to feel I don’t care about my kid, is

wrong. Nobody knows unless you are in my shoes.”

According to the TV report, Aguilar was required by CPS to install locks on her house and garage doors as a condition of her continued custody of her autistic son. She also placed a lock on her bedroom door.

The first charge against Aguilar, filed Aug. 29, 2015, involved the boy being found wandering and barefoot the day before less than one mile from home. That case was dismissed, then refiled on Aug. 31 to include an additional lack of supervision allegation from Aug. 19.

The second charge was dismissed for insufficient evidence on Nov. 12.

That motion includes a prosecutor’s handwritten explanation that there was “no evidence to suggest intentional or reckless endangerment” and that “CPS ruled out abuse.”