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ABANDONED BABY
Associated Press - breaking on the wire | July 12, 2002

Posted on 07/12/2002 10:06:07 AM PDT by NYer

DANBURY, Conn. (AP) _ An 18-year-old mother who gave birth to a baby boy in the bathroom of her father's Brookfield diner and dumped the infant in the garbage has been sentenced to four years in prison. Teresa Perez of Danbury was sentenced by Judge Patrick Carroll in Danbury Superior Court on Thursday.

The baby, named Christopher, was born Nov. 23. An employee emptying the trash found the infant several hours after his birth. The child barely survived the incident. His temperature had dropped to 85 degrees and he was treated for hypothermia at Danbury Hospital. He now lives with foster parents and is doing well, prosecutor Debbie Mabbett said.

The case demanded a prison term, Mabbett said. ``Society cannot and should not tolerate this sort of behavior where we just throw away children,'' she said. ``Here you have a newborn baby. It's thrown away like common trash. It was left for dead for four hours in the bottom of this trash can.''

After Perez left the bathroom and returned to the dining area her father took her home because she felt ill. ``Not once did she tell anyone, 'Go look in on my baby,''' Mabbett said. The infant would have died had the employee not found him, the prosecutor said.

Perez, who cried during the court hearing as she spoke about how she believed she hurt her family, initially told police that a customer took the baby from her while she was in the bathroom and that the customer placed the baby in the trash. At Thursday's sentencing, Perez said she placed the baby in the garbage so he would be found. In a plea bargain with prosecutors, Perez pleaded guilty to risk of injury and abandonment of a child.

Perez must serve five years probation upon her release. She must cooperate with the state Department of Children and Families, attend counseling and find a job. Connecticut has a ``safe haven'' law that allows a mother to take an unwanted baby to a hospital with no questions asked.

AP-ES-07-12-02 1032EDT


TOPICS: Activism/Chapters; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events; US: Connecticut
KEYWORDS: abandonment; garbage; idiocy; newborn; safehaven
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He now lives with foster parents

The states need to sever ties with these birthmothers, especially in cases of abandonment, and free the babies for adoption. I know of too many people who wanted to adopt their foster children but were prevented from doing so, because the state found "blood" relatives who needed another dime in state aid.

1 posted on 07/12/2002 10:06:07 AM PDT by NYer
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To: NYer
Why all the secrecy around the real father? What if Perez's father was his own grandson's father? Would the mother have been sentenced as such? The real father gets off with NO responsibility for this ugly result.
2 posted on 07/12/2002 10:14:19 AM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
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To: NYer
I just do not understand this. I also don't understand how the girl could actually give birth a few feet away from her family and expect to get away with it undiscovered.

3 posted on 07/12/2002 10:15:50 AM PDT by hellinahandcart
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To: Catspaw; biblewonk
Another one.
4 posted on 07/12/2002 10:19:00 AM PDT by hellinahandcart
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To: LurkedLongEnough
Why all the secrecy around the real father?

He wasn't in the bathroom helping her ditch her newborn, obviously. So he wasn't on trial.

She's an adult. She did what she did. Hope she serves every day of her sentence, unlike a few such women I could mention whose babies DIED.

5 posted on 07/12/2002 10:26:28 AM PDT by hellinahandcart
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To: hellinahandcart
Saw it. Thought of the previous discussion right away. In other countries they do worse yet.
6 posted on 07/12/2002 10:29:06 AM PDT by biblewonk
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To: NYer
I'm guessing her fellow inmates are going to make life a little difficult for her when they learn what she's in for.
7 posted on 07/12/2002 11:00:33 AM PDT by Maceman
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To: NYer
Perez said she placed the baby in the garbage so he would be found.

Yeah, because I am constantly looking in the garbage cans of diners for things (?)

She needs some psychological help if she thinks that is the right way to go about getting your kid some help.

8 posted on 07/12/2002 11:01:11 AM PDT by Liberty 5-3000
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To: hellinahandcart
I just do not understand this. I also don't understand how the girl could actually give birth a few feet away from her family and expect to get away with it undiscovered.


Denial. Denial of pregnancy, denial of consequences, and let's not forget her family's denial in not seeing her pregnant state.
This baby dumper deserves everything she gets.
Have they determined who fathered this boy?

9 posted on 07/12/2002 11:07:19 AM PDT by ladysusan
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To: NYer
She also should be sterilized so she can never have children again. Of course, that would never happen because it would be "racist."

That woman who left her kids in the car for three hours so they could bake to death is pregnant, and that just enrages me more...just like that trashy 'vegan' NY couple who starved their daughter, and now they are about to pop out another kid.

10 posted on 07/12/2002 11:11:13 AM PDT by hot august night
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To: hot august night
That woman who left her kids in the car for three hours so they could bake to death is pregnant, and that just enrages me more...just like that trashy 'vegan' NY couple who starved their daughter, and now they are about to pop out another kid.


you forgot to mention the lovely lady in brooklyn who threw her minutes old daughter to the starving family dog. and the humanitarian in texas who locked her daughter in a closet for four years....


lady susan
11 posted on 07/12/2002 11:15:21 AM PDT by ladysusan
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To: ladysusan
question for you, hot august night...
what should be done to the men who fathered these children...should they be sterilized too?
12 posted on 07/12/2002 11:17:40 AM PDT by ladysusan
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To: LurkedLongEnough
maybe the bio-dad doesn't even know he's a bio-dad... we've adopted both of our sons... our youngest's father is listed as "unknown." they both have the same bio-mom...
13 posted on 07/12/2002 11:21:23 AM PDT by latina4dubya
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To: ladysusan
Good question. If they lived with the mother in the same house (unfortunately, a lot of these "fathers" disappear and are no where to be seen -- esp. in the "inner cities")and were a participant or an enabler to these atrocities, then I would say yes. I don't see how they could live in the same house, condone it, and be exempt from guilt.

That's what got me so mad about the Joel Steinberg/Hedda Nussbaum case so many years ago (he had beat his little girl Lisa to death, and the severe beatings were going on for some time.) I always thought Nussbaum should have received a jail sentence as well as Steinberg for not trying to stop it, or report it. And she was a NYC career woman yet...so she had the financial independence to leave him if she wanted, unlike a lot of battered women.

14 posted on 07/12/2002 11:26:14 AM PDT by hot august night
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To: hellinahandcart
She didn't expect the baby to be discovered.

I could make that harsher and more vivid, but if she wanted the child to be discovered, she could've taken the baby to the closest hospital, police or fire station. Of course, if she went, she'd be asked questions, including (possibly) her name and someone would find out.

The time to make the baby's presence known is long before birth, so the mother and child could have prenatal care and give birth under medical supervision. Instead, like so many other tragic cases, she hid her pregnancy, hid the birth and hid the disposal of the child.

I'm very glad the child was found in time and survived. And I do hope that a good family can be found to adopt this precious child.

15 posted on 07/12/2002 11:39:35 AM PDT by Catspaw
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To: hot august night
unfortunately, not every abandoning father is from the "inner city". joel steinberg was a rich attorney. this girl apparently was at least middle class- how likely is it that the baby's father was lower class? nah, he's probably every bit as middle class as she is.

here's a more general question: should unwed fathers be held accountable for the children they help procreate?


lady susan
16 posted on 07/12/2002 11:58:04 AM PDT by ladysusan
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To: latina4dubya
maybe the bio-dad doesn't even know he's a bio-dad... we've adopted both of our sons... our youngest's father is listed as "unknown." they both have the same bio-mom...


lol, latina! listing the father as "unknown" is a very old way to get around a sticky problem. was mom unconscious when she got pregnant or was she gang raped?

lady susan
17 posted on 07/12/2002 12:01:31 PM PDT by ladysusan
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To: ladysusan
unfortunately, not every abandoning father is from the "inner city". joel steinberg was a rich attorney. this girl apparently was at least middle class- how likely is it that the baby's father was lower class? nah, he's probably every bit as middle class as she is.



pardon my brain fart re: joel steinberg. that's what i get for multi tasking when i shoud be paying more attention.
18 posted on 07/12/2002 12:27:11 PM PDT by ladysusan
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To: ladysusan
It's not always a 'way to get around a sticky problem." Sometimes the mother honestly does not know who the father is because she has slept around a lot. She may not have even known the last names of some of the guys she slept with.
19 posted on 07/12/2002 12:36:26 PM PDT by MEGoody
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To: NYer
I don't see a difference between this and abortion. If this is evil, then so is abortion.
20 posted on 07/12/2002 12:40:07 PM PDT by theartfuldodger
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