Mother Charged With Leaving Infant in Car

A West Hills woman who left her baby daughter alone in a parked car while shopping, alarming a crowd of bystanders, was charged Thursday with child endangering, prosecutors said.

In a separate case, a Van Nuys woman was sentenced to 90 days in jail for leaving her two young children home alone, prosecutors said.

Hyun Hee Cho, 30, was charged Thursday with misdemeanor child endangering for allegedly leaving her 11-month-old daughter in her locked station wagon Saturday while shopping at Costco in Canoga Park, Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn said.

Two dozen bystanders who had gathered around the sealed car in response to the baby’s screams applauded police when they arrested the stunned Cho, who reportedly told police she had been in the store for nearly an hour.

The baby and a 4-year-old son who was with Cho inside the store have been placed in foster homes by the Los Angeles County Child Services Department, said Mike Qualls, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office.

Cho, who is free on $25,000 bail, could receive up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, prosecutors said. She is to be arraigned Feb. 3 in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

In the other case, Hahn’s office said Thursday, Deborah Ann Brittenham, 28, pleaded no contest to misdemeanor child endangering and was sentenced to 90 days in jail for leaving her two children--a 2-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy--alone in their squalid apartment.

Van Nuys Municipal Court Commissioner Rebecca Omens-Rochman ordered Brittenham to begin serving her sentence immediately after she entered her plea Wednesday.

Omens-Rochman also placed Brittenham on three years of unsupervised probation and ordered her to undergo parenting training.

Deputy City Atty. Gary Geuss, who prosecuted the case, said police found Brittenham’s children asleep shortly after midnight Jan. 5 in what they described as a dirty, cockroach-infested and heavily damaged apartment.

Officers said the temperature in the Woodman Avenue apartment was between 55 and 60 degrees, there was no refrigerator and the only food was rotting potatoes.

Police, who took the children to the Police Department’s Van Nuys Division, said they arrested Brittenham five hours later when she arrived at the station to inquire about her children.

Geuss said Brittenham’s children have been placed in foster homes by county officials.