Charges against a Santa Ana mother arrested last year for shackling her 10-year-old son while she was at work have apparently been dropped.
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Irma Jacobo Navarro Is 'a Good, Caring Mom' Despite Shackling Her 10 y.o. Son: Police
It's not quite the outcome many would expect after the explosive charges were announced. An older sibling was at school and a younger one with a babysitter when the 10-year-old was seen by neighbors hopping around on one leg outside the apartment unit just before noon on a Thursday last July, Corporal Anthony Bertagna, the Santa Ana Police Department spokesman, said at the time.
When a neighborhood mom asked the boy what he was doing, he is said to have replied he was heading to a friend's house to be freed from his chains. He was later seen crying next to a tree, where a man had him wait as he went off to get bolt cutters. That's about when police arrived.
Navarro allegedly told officers she could not afford a babysitter for two children, but she was worried the 10-year-old would get into trouble were he not shackled while she was away, especially fearful of the gang activity in her neighborhood. She did leave him food and video games.
A felony count and a misdemeanor court of child abuse and endangerment were dropped against Navarro on Friday by prosecutors because she completed a court program that includes child-rearing classes and monitoring from social workers, her attorney Douglas Potratz told City News Service.
She is expected to return to court July 9 for a 60-day review, and it is expected that the case against her will be closed, said Potratz, who added his client “worked really hard and she took a positive approach to the counseling, and she benefited from the counseling for any future problems she may have with her children.”
Investigators last year characterized her as a “good, caring mom.”
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