Mom charged with leaving 5-year-old child unattended (Athens News-Courier)

Mom charged with leaving 5-year-old child unattended
By Jean Cole
June 10, 2011

An Athens mother has been charged with endangering the welfare a child after a Limestone County deputy found the woman’s 5-year-old daughter playing in the street and the mother not at home.

Mariea Tziguin Lorenzo, 32, of 1002 Wheeler St. in Athens, remained in the Limestone County Jail, where she had been detained for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, records show.

Lorenzo was charged Wednesday after Deputy Emily Newton saw the woman’s small child in Wheeler Street while driving to work on Monday, Chief Investigator Capt. Stanley McNatt said.

“The deputy determined the girl could not speak English and was unable to tell the deputy where she lived,” McNatt said.

Newton took the girl to the Sheriff’s Department, where an interpreter determined where the girl lived, he said. The mother was not at home and did not return home for three hours because she had taken another child to a doctor, McNatt said.

“She had left the 5-year-old at home alone and had told her not to leave the house,” he said.

Newton obtained a warrant and arrested Lorenzo.

The child was placed in the custody of the Department of Human Resources, McNatt said.