BABY FOUND IN CAR, MOTHER HELD

Child endangerment charges in Milpitas

MILPITAS -- A woman who allegedly left her baby alone in the car for
several hours while she went off with friends to get high has been
arrested.

Julie Lingafelter, 19, of Modesto, was booked Sunday morning on charges of
child endangerment and possession of methamphetamine and a narcotics pipe,
and her 17-month-old boy was taken into protective custody, said Milpitas
police Officer Steve Pangelinan.

The baby was found crying in his car seat in the back of a brown Chevrolet
Corsica by a woman who was jogging on residential Yosemite Drive about 8:30
a.m. Sunday, police said.

Concerned about the child, the woman knocked at the door of a nearby house
and called police.

Officers found the car unlocked, the key inside and the window rolled down.
Pangelinan said the baby was not wearing a diaper but his lap was wrapped
with a T-shirt, by then soaked with urine.

The boy was taken to San Jose Hospital, where doctors found him to be
healthy but very hungry, officials said. They said the child was fed and
then taken to the Santa Clara County Children's Shelter.

About 10 a.m., as police were impounding the car, Lingafelter arrived
looking for her child, and was arrested, Pangelinan said.

He said the baby had been left unattended for at least three hours, and may
have been there overnight. "The jogger is the hero of this case,"
Pangelinan said. "Had she not seen the kid, given the intense heat, it
could have been much more tragic."

1998 San Francisco Examiner

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)