A 30-year-old Florida mother faces a felony child neglect charge after her young son was discovered walking through a Miami neighborhood late at night, allegedly telling responding officers, “Mommy dropped me off and left me.”
Annie Rivera was arrested Thursday morning after a 911 caller spotted the 6-year-old boy unsupervised near NW 17th Street and NW 7th Avenue just after 11 p.m. Wednesday.
Arnett Johnson, the man who called authorities, told WTVJ that the situation seemed wrong immediately. “I said, ‘Man, it’s a little boy over here, looks like he’s lost, he’s in an odd area, but you all need to come get him,'” Johnson said.
Police were unable to immediately identify the child and spent the night circulating a “need to identify” flyer. It wasn’t until 10:30 a.m. the following day that a representative from Miami-Dade Public Schools contacted investigators to provide the boy’s identity and his mother’s contact information.
READ: 16-Year-Old Behind The Wheel Of Stolen Car Rams Patrol Unit Before Town ‘N’ Country Arrest
According to an arrest affidavit, Rivera told police a different story from her son. She claimed that after finishing work around 8:20 p.m. on Wednesday, she and the boy took a Lyft home, where she tucked him into bed.
She then told investigators she took another Lyft to meet a friend for a meal before heading to a second job, eventually returning home between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. Thursday.
Rivera’s roommate told a different version of events to police, stating she noticed both Rivera and the child were gone when she went to sleep at 11:30 p.m. Though she heard the front door open later that night, she woke up Thursday morning to find Rivera asleep and the boy missing.
The roommate told WTVJ she confronted Rivera after being contacted by the Department of Children and Families (DCF). “I was like ‘hey, where’s your son? They said they found your son,'” the roommate recalled. “She said ‘I thought you took him to school this morning.’ I said ‘you didn’t ask me, I know I didn’t take him to school.'”
Court documents state that Rivera never coordinated or asked the roommate to take the child to school that morning. Police noted in the affidavit that the mother did not realize the child was missing until DCF contacted her on Thursday.
“The defendant took full responsibility and admitted it was her fault,” officers wrote in the report.
Records show that DCF received a report last year regarding Rivera, involving concerns about “inadequate supervision.” Rivera was booked into the Miami-Dade jail on one count of child neglect without great bodily harm. She has since posted a $2,500 bond and entered a plea of not guilty.
Please make a small donation to the Tampa Free Press to help sustain independent journalism. Your contribution enables us to continue delivering high-quality, local, and national news coverage.
Sign up: Subscribe to our free newsletter for a curated selection of top stories delivered straight to your inbox
