A Miami-area mother is facing child neglect charges after, authorities allege, she left four children including a 2-month-old baby at home alone to go on a Carnival cruise.
On Saturday evening, North Miami Beach Police Department officers responded to the residence of Nathalie Belizaire, 29, after being called there by Lether Bazile, the father of the 2-month-old girl. Mr. Bazile and Ms. Belizaire’s brother Steven Borgella were both at the scene, police said in an arrest report.
Police and other responders found the four kids hiding alone in the bathroom, per the arrest report. The baby’s siblings are 2 years, 7 years and 9 years old, according to WPLG-TV.
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Mr. Bazile told police that after seeing Ms. Belizaire post a picture of a cruise ticket online last Thursday, she told him that his daughter and her three other children were going to be in the care of their great-grandmother.
On Saturday, he went to the residence, saw the TV on through the blinds and heard the children, prompting him to call 911, according to the arrest report.
Mr. Borgella told police that he had received a text from Ms. Belizaire the same night asking him to check on the four children; their great-grandmother, Denise Wilkes, told police that while Ms. Belizaire had told her she would be dropping off the children, she never did so, per the arrest report.
Attempts to contact Ms. Belizaire were unsuccessful. The police allege that Ms. Belizaire was on the Carnival Conquest cruise ship on a trip to The Bahamas at the time they responded to the residence, a cruise which left port last Friday and disembarked back in the U.S. on Monday.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection took Ms. Belizaire into custody when she got off the cruise ship Monday before handing her over to the North Miami Beach Police Department. Ms. Belizaire has been charged with four counts of child neglect, according to the arrest report.
Ms. Belizaire’s attorney, a public defender, filed a plea of not guilty on her behalf on Tuesday. The defendant is seeking a trial by jury.
The judge in the case ordered Ms. Belizaire to stay away from the children and set her bond at $10,000. While leaving jail Tuesday, the accused mother denied the charges and said that the kids were supposed to be in the care of their father while she was away, according to WPLG-TV.
The four children are currently in foster care, according to WTVJ-TV.
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