10:30pm | Earlier today, detectives investigating the case mentioned below presented it to the Long Beach City Prosecutor’s Office and criminal charges were filed against the two women who have been identified as Long Beach residents Paloma Espinoza, 28 years old, the mother of the infant, and 52-year-old Sonia Ines Hernandez, the mother of Suspect Espinoza.
Suspect Espinoza was charged with child endangerment and child abandonment for abandoning her child, and Suspect Hernandez, was charged with filing a false police report and obstructing police officers in their investigation. If found guilty of the charges, each woman faces up to two years in county jail.
That afternoon, officers arrested Suspect Espinoza for willful cruelty to a child. She was taken into custody without incident, and is being held on $50,000 bail. Her arraignment is set for Tuesday, February 28, 2012. Suspect Hernandez was served with paperwork to appear in court for arraignment on that date also.
The Long Beach Police Department, in conjunction with the City Prosecutor’s Office and the Fire Department, wish to remind the community of California’s “Safe Surrender” law, which was implemented to prevent babies from being abandoned in unsafe locations, and give them a chance to be placed in loving homes. The law also provides immunity to a parent who surrenders the infant at a pre-designated location, usually a hospital or fire station, within 72 hours of birth, with no questions asked. For more information on the law and locations that participate, please visit. www.babysafe.ca.gov.
Anyone who may have additional information on this case is asked to contact Long Beach Police Child Abuse Detective Mark Steenhausen at (562) 570-7321. Anonymous tips may be sent via text or e-mail by visiting www.tipsoft.com.
February 21, 10:00pm | Sonia Hernandez, the woman claiming to have found an abandoned baby at a gas station, along with her daughter, revealed to be the baby’s 28-year-old mother, may face criminal charges police informed the public today.
In what has become a strange and disturbing situation, facts have come to light indicating that Hernandez’s daughter, whose name has not been released, gave her newborn to her mother, who called 9-1-1 regarding an abandoned baby she supposedly discovered. Hernandez’s daughter was apparently unaware that she was pregnant and, fearful of being unable to care for the child, colluded with her mother to concoct the story of finding the baby abandoned at the gas station.
Sgt. Rico Fernandez, a Long Beach Police Department spokesman, said that the day was spent working on the case while waiting to formally file with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office by Wednesday.
2:15pm | Shortly after it was reported that a woman, Sonia Hernandez, found an abandoned baby at a gas station in Long Beach, investigators soon discovered the story being proffered was false.
Multiple sources are reporting one of two explanations: that the baby’s mother called 9-1-1 herself or she gave Ms. Hernandez the baby, who then in turn created the gas station story.
The Long Beach Post has tried to reach the Long Beach Police Department for an official statement but we are awaiting a response.
Supervisor Don Knabe released the following statement regarding the incident:
“Incidents like what occurred in Long Beach are a reminder to Mothers that there is always an option for their baby. The Safe Surrender program was created to give a Mother, no matter what the situation, a safe, secure and anonymous way to get her child into safe hands and to protect a baby from abandonment: No shame, no blame, and no names. I am very happy to hear that the infant is safe and has a second chance at life and hope for a bright future.”
February 20, 11:55pm | As first reported on KTLA.com, a newborn baby girl was found abandoned at a gas station near the 800 block of Martin Luther King Blvd. at around 7:30 p.m. Thursday. The child was taken to St. Mary Medical Center, where she is said to be in stable condition.
According to KTLA, Long Beach resident Sonia Hernandez found the child “clean, healthy and sleeping,” dressed in “a on[e]sie and beanie” and “wrapped in a blanket inside two plastic bags lying near the water and air pumps.”
In January 2001 California enacted the “Safely Surrendered Baby Law,” which allows for an individual who has legal custody of a newborn anonymously “to give up an unwanted infant with no fear of arrest or prosecution for abandonment […] within 3 days of [the child’s] birth to any hospital emergency room or other designated safe haven in California,” such as L.A. County Fire Department sites. Babies abandoned in accordance with the law are “placed in a foster or pre-adoptive home.”
KTLA reports that police are reviewing surveillance footage from the gas station in an attempt to determine who abandoned the child there. That individual could face charges of felony endangerment.
Police did not respond to the Long Beach Post‘s request for comment.