Springfield child found alone, crying by neighbor, mom charged

A Springfield woman has been charged with child endangering after police alleged her child was found home alone and crying by a neighbor.

Amy Smith, 38, is scheduled to appear today in Clark County Municipal Court. Springfield police were called to the 900 block of Robinson Road on Oct. 19, according to an affidavit.

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“Upon arrival officers spoke with the reporting party … who stated she went out to her car around 8:40 a.m. this morning and discovered the child victim crying in her driveway,” the affidavit said.

Police questioned the child, whose age was not released, and the child told them he fell asleep at night and when he woke up his mother wasn’t home, the affidavit said. Authorities alleged surveillance footage from a neighbor’s home security system shows Smith left the home around 10 p.m. and hadn’t returned, the affidavit said.

The child was placed with a family member, the affidavit says, and Smith couldn’t be contacted until she was allegedly involved in a car crash later that day.

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“Ms. Smith immediately stated (without being questioned or interviewed by officers) that she did not leave her son alone last night and that she left him there with a sitter,” the affidavit says. “She said it was her boyfriend and that he came over drunk after she put the child victim to bed. She stated she left him in the car of the intoxicated male while she went out.”

Officers then advised her of her Miranda Rights, the affidavit says, and that’s when she decided to stop talking.

Smith was refused by the jail because of a head injury, according to the report.

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