Woman can visit kids with supervision

A Lauderhill woman arrested after she allegedly left her three young children unattended in a car for less than four minutes was ordered released from jail Sunday.

Marialie Sainville, 34, was to be freed on her own recognizance after she appeared before Broward Judge Jeffrey Levenson, who ordered that she be able to visit the children only under the supervision of child protective services of the Broward Sheriff ’s Office.

The children, ages 1, 3 and 6, are in the custody of a relative, their father told the court during a first-appearance hearing.

“She left them in a hot car,” said Levenson as Sainville, in jail scrubs, stood weeping in the North Broward lockup. “They could have been abducted. You’re not supposed to leave your kids in the car. That’s the bottom line.”

Sainville was arrested and charged with three counts of child neglect without bodily harm Saturday after a bystander told a Davie police officer that the children were unattended in a car in the parking lot of Publix, 5997 Stirling Road, in Davie.

The officer, who was nearby because of a minor car crash, discovered the children at 2:30 p.m. in a green 2000 Acura with the door unlocked and the window halfway down, according to Davie police.

Minutes later, Sainville came out of the store and told the officer the children were hers, explaining that she had gone into the store looking for money she thought she had dropped.

Store video showed she walked in at 2:32 p.m. and walked out just before 2:36 p.m., police said.

The Broward Sheriff's Child Protective Investigations Section was contacted and the children were turned over to a family member, police said.

In court Sunday, a man who identified himself as Sainville’s husband and the father of the children said they were in the custody of a relative in Coral Springs.

An attorney representing Sainville told Levenson that she had ties to the community and “has lived here a long, long time.”

Sainville’s husband, an aircraft mechanic, said his wife was a paralegal.

“These are really serious issues, not only because of the claim, but also because it affects your relationship with the children,” Levenson told Sainville.