Bonnie and Clyde Leave Kid in Hotel Room

JeanneSager — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:06:00 GMT

I'm not sure whether to commend Gabriel Espino and Marsha Castillo for not exposing their son to their life of crime or go at them with both barrels. The New Jersey couple left their 2-year-old in a motel room last week while they allegedly broke into a house in Weehawken.

When they were caught and placed under arrest, police said Espino claimed they were just trying get money together to buy diapers and formula. But when police entered the motel room, they found the 2-year-old watching television on the bed, and a pile of stolen electronics, including laptops and iPods. So far, the couple has been charged with a total of seven burglaries.

Covered in bruises, the little boy was rescued and taken into custody by the state while his parents were sent to jail on $20,000 bail. His mother is facing child endangerment charges, and his father has confessed to all seven burglaries. For the first time since they moved into the Weehawken hotel several months ago, the family at least has stable housing - albeit split up and all paid for by the state. The fact that the family was living in a motel makes Espino's claims of needing money to buy formual and diapers believable - they were, for all intents and purposes, homeless. One police report even says Espino, 22, had recently lost his job and worried about how to pay the motel bill.

Not that any of it gives a set of parents the right to leave a toddler unsupervised. For a little little boy, locked in a motel room, I can think of dozens of dangers just off the top of my head - from knocking the TV over onto himself to turning on the tub and an accidental drowning. What's more, the sheer terror for a toddler to be left alone without Mommy and Daddy gives me chills.

I'm not giving them a break for turning to crime either. If you can't feed your kid, you take it on the chin and beg, borrow . . . do anything short of stealing. In the words of Mr. Hand, stealing is bad, MmmKay?

But there's a little part of me that feels sorry for a mom and dad living in a flea bag motel (according to reports, the kid was covered in bed bug bites) who probably couldn't afford a babysitter even if they'd thought to call on one while they went off on their admittedly bad, bad errand. In this economy, I'm surprised there aren't more parents like Espino and Carillo just doing what they have to to pay the bills.

Image: Journal News

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Dad arrested for leaving son at McDonald's

Brett Singer — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:00:00 GMT

See if you can follow this: Dave Lieber, a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, got into an argument with his 11 year old son over breakfast at McDonald's (perhaps the boy ate his McGriddle?). Lieber got so angry with the boy that he drove away, leaving him in the parking lot, which was "a few blocks" from their home. He then thought better of it and came back to pick him up a few minutes later, only to find that the police had been called. No charges were filed, and Lieber wrote about the incident in his August 15th column. He acknowledged that he had "made a stupid and quite serious mistake…I could have exposed my son to grave danger. I do know that. But in the moment of anger, I didn’t think clearly." He called The Parenting Center in Fort Worth, a nonprofit that offers counseling to local families. They gave him some good advice in case this situation ever happens again, like "don't take it personally when fighting with your child," that sort of thing.

HOWEVER, two weeks later, after "additional investigation", he was arrested on charges of "child abandonment with intent to return and child abandonment/endangering a child." Lieber is free on relatively modest $4,000 bail, but is still charged with two felonies.

There's an interesting line in his August 15th column: "back in the 1960s, if my parents had told me to 'walk home by yourself' when I misbehaved, no one would have thought twice…But what flew years ago doesn’t fly today."

I can't imagine doing something like this, and only partly because we don't eat at McDonald's. The felony charges seem extreme, however. When I was 11, I could walk to the store to buy comic books (and other things), and I lived in the Bronx. Isn't this the same thing? Or should intent –Lieber left his son in the parking lot out of anger – be a factor? Has anyone out there ever had an experience like this?

(Note: the image is from Dave Lieber's website, YankeeCowboy.com. That's a picture of him.)

Sources: Statesman.com, Star-Telegram

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