How I love my neighborhood...
Woman abandons her newborn in bushes along I-35W to turn a trick
A 28-year-old woman temporarily abandoned her month-old baby girl near Interstate Hwy. 35W in Minneapolis on Monday evening while she committed an act of prostitution at a friend's house nearby, according to charges filed Tuesday.
The gross misdemeanor child neglect charge accuses Natalie L. Griffin of bringing the baby, strapped in a car seat, to a brushy area just north of Lake Street and Stevens Avenue S. near I-35W about 7:10 p.m. A witness confronted the woman and threatened to call police, said Lt. Amelia Huffman.
She told him to "do what you need to do" and walked away, Huffman said. The man called police, who checked the baby for dehydration. The temperature outside at the time was 82 degrees, she said.
About 20 minutes later, Griffin returned to the area where she left her baby. She was arrested after the witness recognized her.
Griffin told police she left the baby in the bushes because she needed money and was going to a friend's to commit an act of prostitution, the charges said.
The baby was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis for a checkup, then placed in protective custody. Griffin, of St. Paul, has been convicted of several drug and prostitution charges in the past two years.
Huffman reminded parents they can drop off a newborn baby to any emergency room with no questions asked. Older children can be brought to the crisis nursery in Minneapolis.
DAVID CHANEN