Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Mom at bar with baby in car, deputies say
A woman left her toddler son alone inside her car in the middle of the night Monday while she was at a Deerfield Beach bar, authorities said.
After receiving an anonymous complaint about a baby in a car, Broward Sheriff’s deputies went to a parking lot at 1825 W. Hillsboro Blvd.
At 1:32 a.m. Monday, they found the baby in the back seat of a black Hyundai. The car’s engine was turned off and all the windows were rolled up, deputies said.
Paramedics determined the baby, about 2 years old, was in good condition and not in distress, Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Michael Kane said.
The child held a sippy cup as a firefighter carried him to Broward Health North in Deerfield Beach to be examined.
The boy’s mother, Jennifer Lauren Potts, 29, of Deerfield Beach, left Padano Bar & Grill and met deputies at her car.
Potts told a deputy she left the baby for a couple of seconds while she went in the bar to get her cellphone and driver’s license, according to an arrest report.
But during a bond hearing on Monday afternoon, prosecutor Eric Linder disputed Potts’ account.
“I know Ms. Potts claimed that she only went into the bar for a few seconds to get her driver’s license and her cellphone,” Linder said. “The facts don’t support that, though.”
Dispatchers sent deputies to the parking lot at 1:15 a.m., and found the Hyundai with the child locked inside at 1:32 a.m., Linder said.
“So at a minimum, [it was] 17 minutes,” Linder said. “And that is if she left the car the second the call was made to 911, and got back the second the officer got there.”
Potts, who is married and a homemaker, does not have a criminal record, her lawyer said. She was arrested and faces a charge of child neglect without great bodily harm.
When she was taken into custody, Potts smelled of alcohol and
admitted to drinking an unknown amount of alcohol, the arrest report said.
Assistant Public Defender Brian Reidy said Potts had been out with friends earlier Sunday evening and that deputies who met her at the parking lot did not investigate her for driving while intoxicated.
“There is nothing in this [arrest] report that indicates she was impaired,” Reidy told Broward County Judge Kim Theresa Mollica.
Reidy asked that Potts be able to see her son as her case progresses through the criminal and family courts.
“I think it would be an extremely undue hardship on Ms. Potts if she was not able to have some contact with her son,” Reidy said. “I think as long as it was supervised, that should be sufficient for this court’s concerns.”
Potts’ parents also were in court.
Her father, whose name was not said in court, told the judge, “She was out with her friends and made a horrible judgement call, no doubt about that. … I know the relationship that Jennifer and my grandson have, and she would never, ever, I know what this circumstance appears to be.
“She would never intend any harm on him,” her father told the judge. “They love one another dearly. She is his life and he is hers.”
Mollica set a $5,000 bond and ordered no contact between Potts and her son until a future court hearing. The judge also told Potts to not use alcohol or intoxicants and to submit to random testing that she will pay for.
The Broward Sheriff’s Child Protective Investigations Section is reviewing the case on behalf of the Florida Department of Children & Families, a DCF spokeswoman said.