Mom charged with leaving kids in filth gets house arrest
TRENTON » A city mom accused of leaving her six kids in a filthy house unfit for human habitation has been released from jail on the condition of house arrest and that she have no direct contact with children.
“Are you taking my children away because my place is horrible and filthy?” 30-year-old Mayra MenaPena said in a telephone conversation with Trenton Police Officer Tomika Sommers as cops investigated the squalid conditions inside the Pennington Avenue home, according to court documents.
The property on the 300 block of Pennington Avenue was tainted with trash and feces. The abode also had no proper bedding or food, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
On the night of April 25, Mena-Pena knowingly left her six kids “for an extended period of time in squalor conditions that are unfit for human habitation,” authorities allege in a complaint warrant. Sommers arrested Mena-Pena the following day, charging her with six counts of second-degree child endangerment.
The defendant has 1-yearold twins and four other children ages 10, 8, 7, and 6, according to the affidavit of probable cause. The New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency, the agency formerly known as DYFS, was called in as the children were taken to the hospital for examination, police said, adding the kids were OK.
Booked at the Mercer County Correction Center on April 26, Mena-Pena had her first court appearance the following day, with the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office filing a motion seeking to keep her detained without bail on pretrial detention, court records show.
After being in police custody for a week, Mena-Pena finally had her detention hearing Wednesday afternoon. She entered the courtroom shackled in chains and sporting an orange inmate jumpsuit, but the hearing ended in anti-climactic fashion as Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Laura Sunyak withdrew the detention motion.
With the detention motion being withdrawn, Mercer County Superior Court Judge Ronald Susswein had no choice other than to order conditions of release intended to protect children.
Susswein ultimately ordered the defendant to be released on home detention, where Mena-Pena will be confined to her mother’s residence on West State Street in Trenton. The prosecution and defense agreed upon the release conditions, which do not include electronic monitoring.
Mena-Pena is ordered to have no contact with her six children “except as permitted by DCPP,” Susswein ordered Wednesday. She is prohibited from having direct contact with any other children under the age of 18.
The mother of six works at two bodegas, according to her defense attorney Kathleen Redpath-Pérez, a state public defender.
The judge said Mena-Pena is permitted to work but noted he does not want her “interacting with children.” If children come into the bodega while Mena-Pena is on the job, she is not permitted to serve those children, according to the judge’s order that prohibits direct interaction with children.
The mother is permitted to go to court and work and is permitted to see her children whenever DCPP makes those secure arrangements, but she is otherwise ordered to home detention, the judge ruled.
“I can’t do laundry or food shopping?” Mena-Pena asked the judge Wednesday.
“Nope,” Susswein responded. “Not for now.”
Redpath-Pérez said her client has “a very close-knit family” and that “they’ll all work together” to make sure Mena-Pena’s needs are met.
Other conditions of the defendant’s release require her to remain offense-free during her pretrial release and prohibit her from possessing any dangerous weapons, including all firearms. She also is prohibited from consuming excessive amounts of alcohol and from taking any controlled dangerous substances without a valid prescription.
Mena-Pena has a pretrial conference scheduled for June 4 before Mercer County Superior Court Judge Robert Bingham II.