Hialeah police arrested a mother on Thursday after a driver found her 7-year-old son walking alone in the street, according to police. The driver told officers she stopped to help the boy, who was barefoot and appeared to be autistic. He was walking along West 20th Lane between East 58th and 60th streets, where vehicles were passing around him, police said.
Officers found a woman living near East 58th Street who recognized the boy. The front door of the home was open, and no one answered. A sergeant located María José Cortez Espinoza inside, asleep, and had to rub her sternum to wake her, a technique used to check for responsiveness, according to police.
Police said Cortez Espinoza appeared to be under the influence of alcohol and was near five open bottles of Sutter Home wine. She told officers she had drunk a glass of wine, fell asleep and did not know her son had left the house. A child protective investigator’s drug test was negative for narcotics but positive for alcohol, according to the arrest report. The report also said she was aggressive toward patrol officers.
Hialeah officers arrested Cortez Espinoza shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday. She was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center near Doral shortly after 8 p.m. At her first court appearance Friday morning, a bond judge ordered her to stay away from her son. She faces a child neglect charge without serious physical injury, and her bond was set at $2,500.
Booking records and court records show Cortez Espinoza, a native of Nicaragua, had an immigration detainer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
