CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — A 36-year-old mother now faces homelessness after being charged with a misdemeanor child endangerment offense stemming from what her attorney described as a momentary lapse in judgment.
The woman appeared in Central Islip Criminal Court on Friday, charged with endangering the welfare of a child—a Class A misdemeanor in New York—after allegedly leaving her 2-year-old son alone in a running car for approximately 20 minutes on June 12.
The incident occurred that morning in the parking lot of Tanger Outlets in Deer Park, according to reports. A passerby noticed the child strapped into a car seat in a Nissan Rogue with the engine running and alerted security, who then called police. Officers arrived to find the child unharmed, with the air conditioning on. When the mother returned from shopping, she was arrested.
In court, Assistant District Attorney Christina Giordanella emphasized what she called the serious risk to the child and requested a full stay-away order prohibiting the mother from having any contact with her son. By that time, Child Protective Services had already been notified, and the child had been placed in his father’s custody.
The mother’s public defender, Eric von Czerniewicz of the Suffolk County Legal Aid Society, argued that the order would effectively render his client homeless. She lives with her son, he said, has no criminal history, and there was no evidence the child was at risk of heatstroke because the car’s air conditioning had been running throughout.
But Judge Alonzo Jacobs was unswayed. Calling her actions “a real lapse of judgment,” Jacobs granted the protective order in full and rebuked the mother in open court.
“I care less about the homeless situation and more about the child’s life,” Jacobs said. “He could have been kidnapped. He could have suffocated.”
The mother is charged under New York Penal Law § 260.10, a statute that covers a wide range of parental behavior—from minor errors to severe neglect or abuse. Critics say the law is too often used to criminalize poverty and punish low-income caregivers of color, especially mothers.
“This law is vague and overly broad,” said a representative from the Movement for Family Power, which filed a 2020 amicus brief documenting how child welfare practices disproportionately affect Black families. “It allows the state to punish parents not for actual harm, but for the mere possibility of risk.”
Advocates argue that the intersection of child welfare and criminal law frequently results in overreach—where parents are penalized for circumstances shaped by poverty, rather than intentional harm or neglect.
“This mother didn’t hurt her child,” von Czerniewicz said. “She didn’t abandon him. He was safe, in a cooled vehicle, and she returned. Now, she’s not only separated from her son but potentially left without a home.”
The case underscores a growing concern among public defenders and family advocates: that the justice system too often substitutes criminal charges for social support, treating structural hardship as criminal conduct.
The mother is due back in court later this month.
