A husband and wife in Florida are accused of leaving their infant child in an unlocked, running car while they were drinking at a bar.
Clarisse Finnegan, 28, and Norman Finnegan, 60, have each been charged with felony child neglect without great bodily harm, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. The charges arose from an incident on Friday night.
Around 10:20 p.m., the sheriff’s office received a 911 call reporting a child left unattended in a vehicle outside the Smiles bar in Palm Coast, about 60 miles south of Jacksonville.
According to the arrest affidavit, arriving deputies discovered an infant in the back right seat of a white Volkswagen Passat that was “improperly secured in a car seat.”
The sheriff’s office provided video of responding law enforcement officers suggesting smashing a car window to get inside – until they realized the car was unlocked, the key was in the ignition, and the air conditioning was turned on.
The infant “appeared to be in good health, sleeping in the car seat, and did not appear to be injured,” according to the document.
Less than ten minutes after the deputies arrived, a woman exited the bar and approached one of them, claiming the car was hers. She was later identified as Clarisse Finnegan, according to the affidavit.
She was immediately handcuffed and questioned, and she told police that she was not alone in the bar; her husband was inside.
A deputy went inside and, based on Clarisse Finnegan’s description, led Norman Finnegan outside and detained him.
According to the affidavit, a bartender inside Smiles told deputies that while both the husband and wife had been drinking, Clarisse Finnegan “had not been there long” and only had “a little bit” to drink.
Authorities then spoke with the witness who had called them. The woman stated that she arrived at the bar at 10 p.m. and saw the Volkswagen with its lights on and engine running.
About 15 minutes later, she noticed a man leave the bar, look inside the vehicle, and then return inside.
“[The witness] stated that no other persons approached the vehicle, and the older white male only came out one time,” the witness’ account continues.
The husband and wife then gave their accounts of what happened.
Clarisse Finnegan stated that she was watching the child at home but drove to the bar to get money from her husband so she could purchase “necessities” for their child at CVS.
She claimed she only stayed at the bar for about ten minutes and left the boy inside because “Smiles allowed smoking inside of the establishment.”
She explained that she went outside to check on her child before returning to the bar and asking her husband if she could take him home.
The bartender then “given her a drink” but only gave her “a few sips,” according to the affidavit. As her husband was about to pay the bar tab, she walked outside, where she was apprehended by deputies and detained.
Then came Norman Finnegan’s tale. He had arrived at the bar around 8:30 p.m. that Friday night to “get away” for a couple of hours, and he explained that his baby “gets fussy when he is not around or home, and Clarisse is a new mother.”
Later, he was approached by his wife, who requested “his assistance” with their child. He claimed that his wife walked out twice to check on the baby during her brief visit to the bar, but his explanations for how long she stayed were “inconsistent,” according to deputies.
Following the couple’s arrests, a friend of Norman Finnegan was called to care for the child. The couple were both detained at the Flagler County Detention Facility.
The next morning, Norman Finnegan was released on a $2,500 bond, and Clarisse Finnegan was released on her own recognizance, according to the sheriff’s office. They were both arraigned on Tuesday.
“These two will never receive the Parents of the Year award with this behavior,” Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said in a statement. “It is never acceptable to leave an infant alone in a running vehicle, particularly in a bar.
This level of recklessness could have resulted in tragedy. I’d like to thank the concerned citizen who reported the incident and our deputies for acting quickly to protect this innocent child.”
The Florida Department of Children and Families is also investigating the incident.
