Teen mom arraigned after baby thrown in trash alley (Boston Herald)

Teen mom arraigned after baby thrown in trash alley

By Edward Mason
Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The teen mother of a baby who entered this world in a bathroom and was then thrown 17 feet down into a trash-strewn East Boston alley was charged with assault and held on $1,500 cash bail yesterday.

Eva Flores, 18, a recently arrived illegal alien, was trying to keep her pregnancy and the boy’s birth a secret, prosecutors said. The young woman has since named her hospitalized, cast-off baby Angel and has indicated she wants to keep him.

“This is very sad and a very serious case,” said prosecutor Leora Joseph, after the arraignment.

Flores severely injured the baby when she threw the crying newborn out the window in an effort to conceal the birth, prosecutors said. She pleaded not guilty in East Boston District Court to charges of reckless endangerment of a child and assault and battery of a child under 14 with injuries. Flores, who arrived from El Salvador within the past three months, also is being held on a federal immigration detainer, prosecutors said.

On Sept. 20, Flores gave birth to a baby in the bathtub of the Saratoga Street apartment she shared with her mother and stepbrother, Joseph said. After she dropped the infant out the window, neighbors heard his desperate cries and called the cops.

Flores, a diminutive teen who required a translator to understand the charges against her, further hid her crime by unscrewing the grate on the bathtub drain, stuffing the umbilical cord down, and then replacing the grate, Joseph said.

“She didn’t want her mother to know she was pregnant,” 
Joseph said.

Angel was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he continues to be treated for severe injuries from the fall, Joseph said, including brain lesions, brain seizures and brain swelling. Doctors said the injuries were consistent with a 17-foot fall.

Joseph said the father’s whereabouts are unknown.

Flores also was sent to Massachusetts General Hospital for evaluation. She was arrested yesterday “after a thorough and exhaustive investigation,” Boston police said.

Flores is a student at East Boston High School. The federal detainer stems from her arrival illegally from El Salvador about two or three weeks prior to delivering the baby, prosecutors said.

Flores is due back in East Boston District Court on Nov. 1. She faces up to 2 A years in jail on each charge. Child welfare authorities have taken custody of the baby boy. He remains 
in Massachusetts General Hospital.