Orange : Charges Sought in Case of Boy Left at Swap Meet
Police will recommend that child endangerment charges be filed against a San Diego woman who left her 2-year-old son at a swap meet last weekend, a spokesman said Wednesday.
Sgt. Paul Ordonez said Mary Ann Bentley has failed to give police sufficient reason why her son, Christopher Bentley, was found wandering at the Orange Drive-In at State College Boulevard and the Santa Ana Freeway last Saturday morning.
“We have given her ample opportunity to tell us what happened, and she hasn’t shown up yet,” Ordonez said.
The woman has told police in two telephone calls that she looked unsuccessfully for her son and later thought that perhaps a friend had retrieved him.
The boy was taken to Orangewood, the county’s home for abused and neglected children. On Tuesday he was released to his father, a San Diego man who apparently does not live with the boy’s mother, said Bob Theemling, Orangewood’s program manager.
Ordonez said the police report on Bentley would be forwarded to the district attorney’s office later this week.
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