NJ Court Finds Leaving Child Alone in Car is Abuse

Leaving a child alone in a car constitutes child abuse, ruled a state appeals court on Tuesday. They found that a mother didn’t exercise the minimum degree of care required by New Jersey law when she left her sleeping 19-month-old child in a locked car with the engine running and windows opened an inch while she shopped in 2009. The woman was gone five to ten minutes, but security called police after they saw the child. The court said that only an extenuating circumstance such as going into a store to purchase medicine allowed leaving a child.

This article appeared in print on page 5 of the January 16th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.