WASHINGTON (AP) - A Washington man and his wife have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges after authorities said they left their two toddlers alone in a car for an hour while they attended a wine tasting.
Forty-one-year-old Christopher Lucas and his wife, 46-year-old Jennie Chang, pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of second-degree attempted cruelty to children. Prosecutors agreed to drop the case after 9 months. The couple has already begun attending court-monitored parenting classes.
Police say the couple left their young son and daughter, who were 2 and 3 years old at the time, inside a car near the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood on a cold day in January. Police said the girl had been crying.
Danny Onorato, one of Chang’s lawyers, called the incident “an unfortunate lapse in judgment.”
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