Dominique Knowles, Westlake, Ohio mom avoids jail time as she is sentenced to 5 years probation for leaving her 3 young children all alone for 3 days while holidaying in Florida, with the absent mom using UberEats to feeding her special needs twins and 10 year old.
An Ohio mother has avoided jail time during sentencing after she was found guilty of leaving her 7 year old special need twin daughters in the care of her 10-year-old while she flew to Florida for a ‘get-away’.
Dominique Knowles was found guilty on two misdemeanor counts of child endangerment during a bench trial earlier this month after she was found to have left the young children all alone for three days earlier this year, WKYC reported.
Appearing in court on Wednesday, the parent was given five years probation, ordered to attend a parenting class and mental health counseling, along with $800 in fines and 360 days of house arrest, in which she will be allowed to leave for work, WKBN reported.
According to a police report, a Westlake City Schools special education teacher called 911 on Feb. 22 after one of her special needs students, a 7-year-old girl, said she was home alone with her twin sister and 10-year-old sister. She also told her teacher that their mother was in Texas and checking on them via video along with arranging for food to be delivered via UberEats.
When police arrived at Knowles’ Westlakes apartment, they found the three children were indeed home alone.
One of the officers observed the apartment to be ‘in shambles,’ noting that ‘there was clothing, food, trash, and an unknown liquid covering the floor.’ The officer also observed ‘furniture stacked up in a corner, storage boxes stacked in another corner, and the apartment smelling of old food and body odor,’ nevermind an unlocked patio door that the children could have walked out of the apartment at any point, let alone an intruder entering.
The children insisted that their mom hadn’t left them alone, but police weren’t buying it.
Officers were able to track down the children’s grandmother who told police that her daughter hadn’t notified her that she was traveling out of state. The relative volunteered that she was able to take care of the children had she been asked, Cleveland 19 reported.
Four days later, police managed to track down Knowles, with the parent telling officers that she believed that her 10-year-old daughter could provide care for the other children while she was not home. Knowles refused to answer questions as to where she had been between Feb. 21-25, while claiming she had not left Ohio. Or did she?
Prosecuting attorney Michael Maloney says police tracked Knowles’ phone and confirmed that the parent had in fact traveled to Miami, Florida, the day before they conducted the welfare check.
Upon being confronted with the inconvenient phone pings, Maloney said Knowles changed her story, telling police she that she had travelled to Miami to support a friend undergoing liposuction surgery.
‘Remote work is one thing, remote mom is another,’ the prosecutor said.
In deciding to spare the mom a potential one year behind bars, Judge Joseph Burke told the mom of three, ‘I don’t want to further victimize your daughters by separating you from them.’
Adding, ‘It is now time for you to become the mother that your daughters deserve, need and require.’
