Children in Trunk Driven 70 Miles

A Gardena woman who had been granted guardianship of two children was arrested after California Highway Patrol officers found that she had driven 70 miles with seven children packed into her Toyota compact, including two locked in the trunk.

The incident occurred Friday evening when a motorist noticed the car parked on the side of the San Diego Freeway in West Los Angeles and then saw a woman checking on two children in the trunk before closing the trunk and driving north on the freeway.

Concerned because the temperature was in the high 80s, the motorist called 911 and for about an hour tailed the vehicle into the Antelope Valley, where a CHP officer pulled the car over.

The officer found Laverne Dunlap, 35, in the car and a passenger in the front seat with a 10-year-old boy on her lap and four children, ages 5 to 17, wedged in the backseat, none of them wearing seat belts, said CHP Officer Wendy Hahn.

“When the officer asked to look in the trunk, [Dunlap] said, ‘absolutely,’ and sure enough there were two kids in the trunk,” Hahn said.

Dunlap told the officer that she did not have enough room in the car and that the children wanted to ride in the trunk, Hahn said.

She also told the officer that after leaving Gardena to visit a relative in Palmdale, she had stopped twice to check the children in the trunk.

That, she said, was what the motorist saw on the side of the road.

Authorities said that two of the children in the car were Dunlap’s biological children and that two were under her guardianship.

Two of the remaining children belonged to her boyfriend and the seventh one was the daughter of the adult passenger, according to a confidential memo sent to county supervisors Wednesday by the Department of Children and Family Services.

The memo, which was read to The Times by county officials on condition of anonymity, stated that Dunlap had been granted guardianship of one child by a probate court and of the other through a state program designed to find permanent homes for children in long-term foster care.

Typically, social workers complete a background check on parents who seek legal guardianship.

The memo stated that county officials had at one time or another investigated allegations of abuse or neglect involving at least five of the seven children in the car.

But the memo cited no allegations that were substantiated and did not state that Dunlap was considered a suspect in those cases.

Officials would not reveal the identities of the two children in the trunk.

Dunlap was arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment. She was released on her own recognizance Saturday afternoon with a promise to appear in Santa Clarita Court on June 20, Hahn said.

Reached Wednesday at her home in Gardena, Dunlap declined to comment. Her lawyer did not return calls seeking comment.

When she was arrested, Dunlap told the CHP officer that she was a foster parent, Hahn said.

County officials Wednesday issued a news release stating that “the children involved in this incident were not under the supervision of the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services and Ms. Dunlap is not a foster parent.”

Department Director David Sanders said Wednesday that he was still gathering information about the case, including any details on past allegations involving the children.

He said the Department of Children and Family Services would investigate to determine whether the family needed assistance or the children needed to be removed from the home.

CHP officials said they were baffled that someone would allow children to ride in the trunk of a car, especially on a hot day and over such a long distance.

“Not only could they have been involved in a traffic collision, but imagine if there was an exhaust leak and carbon monoxide poisoning in the trunk,” Hahn said. “And it was warm on Friday, they could have become dehydrated.”

Hahn credited the persistence of the motorist who reported the incident.

“There’s a number of things that could have happened to them that the citizen possibly averted,” the officer said.

All seven children were released into the custody of the 28-year-old passenger in the car.

Times staff writers Hector Becerra and Evelyn Larrubia contributed to this report.