By Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writer
Friday, September 3, 2010
ST. PETERSBURG — A Pinellas County sheriff's deputy saw something curious Wednesday night on a curb next to the road: a 9-month-old baby boy.
That led to the arrest of the child's mother, Amanda Marie Gallegos, on a charge of child neglect.
According to a sheriff's report, Gallegos was staying with the baby at an undisclosed hotel in unincorporated St. Petersburg when deputies said she took two pills of Roxycotton.
Then the mother left the motel room — leaving the baby unattended, deputies said — to make a phone call in the front lobby. She left the motel room door ajar.
While she was gone, deputies said the child pushed the door open and crawled onto a nearby access roadway on the side of the motel and wound up on the curb where a deputy found him.
Inside the room, deputies said they found "narcotics paraphernalia and prescription medication." But the mother had no prescription, deputies said. She was arrested at 11:55 p.m. Wednesday.
Deputies did not identify the child or give an address for the motel. The incident was likely reported to child protection investigators. But the Sheriff's Office could not say Friday if the child was placed with relatives or the state.
Gallegos, 22, was being held without bail Friday in the Pinellas County jail.
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