Mother Held for Abandoning Infant

A sales receipt led police to a 26-year-old West Hills woman who they believe abandoned her newborn boy in a shopping bag outside a hospital, authorities said on Wednesday.

Police arrested Rosemary Gutierrez, who is expected to be charged today with child endangerment, said Det. Lisa Lawson of the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley division.

“She admitted giving birth to the child, but said she was unprepared to raise him at this time,” Lawson said of Gutierrez, who also has a 6-year-old daughter.

A nurse found the baby in a Robinsons-May shopping bag about 10 p.m. Monday in the employee parking lot of the West Hills Hospital and Medical Center, Lawson said.

The state’s year-old safe haven law, which allows a parent to leave an infant in a hospital emergency room within 72 hours of birth with no fear of prosecution, does not apply in this case because the infant was abandoned outside, Lawson said.

The child, who was in good condition, was wrapped in two towels during the nine hours or more that he was in the bag.

Detectives traced a department store receipt found in the bag to Gutierrez’s mother, Lawson said. At the woman’s house, where Gutierrez and her daughter live, detectives found evidence that a birth had taken place within 48 hours, police said.

Gutierrez’s mother told police she did not know her daughter had given birth. Some neighbors said they did not know she was pregnant.

“She looked like she was getting bigger, but she never mentioned being pregnant,” said Brian Davis, who lives across the street.

Gutierrez was arrested about 9 p.m. Tuesday after telling police she had given birth to the child, Lawson said. She is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

The dark-haired, 7-pound baby boy was in the custody of the county Department of Children and Family Services at the hospital.

The baby sleeps, eats and shows off his dimples under the watch of the teddy bears at either end of his tiny incubator.

“He’s more of a social butterfly than an eater,” said nurse Lisa Raymond.

Volunteer groups have showered the infant with gifts, including a cream-colored, hand-crocheted blanket and a blue plaid outfit.