Criminal Charges Filed Against Mother, Daughter Who Reported They Found a Baby at Long Beach Gas Station
Investigators discovered that the baby wasn't abandoned
Aerial view of the Long Beach gas station where authorities said a baby was reported found Monday night.
Criminal charges have been filed against the mother-daughter pair that claimed they found a baby at a Long Beach gas station earlier this week.
Sonia Ines Hernandez, 52, was charged with filing a false police report and obstructing police officers in their investigation, according to Long Beach police. Her 28-year-old daughter, Paloma Espinoza, was arrested Friday and charged with child endangerment and child abandonment.
Hernandez claimed she and her daughter went to a USA gas station Monday night when she saw what looked like a human foot in a garbage bag.
There, she found a baby girl left next to the gas station, Hernandez said. Temperatures that night hovered around 40 degrees.
In interviews, Hernandez said her daughter urged her to leave the baby, but said she could not and took the baby home, where she called 911.
The infant was just a few hours old when paramedics took her to the hospital, where she was found to be in good condition, police said.
Detectives investigating the case determined that the mother, believed to be Espinoza, had given birth to the baby at her Long Beach residence, police said.
She then gave the baby to her mother who reported that the infant was found at the gas station, police said.
Espinoza is being held on $50,000 bail. She is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 28. Her mother was served with paperwork Friday to appear in court on that date.
If convicted, both women face up to two years in county jail.
More than a decade ago, California approved the Safe Haven Law, which allows an adult to surrender their newborn at a hospital emergency room within 72 hours of birth, no questions asked.
In 2002, fire stations were included as safe surrender sites.
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