: Baby Abandoned: Flushing Woman Prosecuted For Leaving Newborn On Door Step

The mother who allegedly abandoned her days-old baby on the doorstep of a neighbor was arraigned Wednesday in Queens Criminal Court.

Hua Zheng, 31, was charged with first degree reckless endangerment, abandonment of a child and endangering the welfare of a child. Zheng, a Chinese immigrant, resides on Bowne Street in Flushing.

“The defendant is alleged to have left her three-day-old daughter on the doorstep of a Flushing home without notifying the family inside that she was doing so,” said District Attorney Richard Brown. “She was apparently known to the family, but she failed to ask them for help or notify them that she was, in fact, leaving her baby for them to care for.”

The incident has spurred officials to push the state’s Safe Haven law, which allows a parent to leave a child no older than five days with an appropriate person or in a suitable location.

According to the DA, this wasn’t Zheng’s first run-in with the law; she was arrested on May 11, 2007 and charged with felony unauthorized practice of a profession (massage therapy) and prostitution. According to the complaint filed in the case, Zheng offered and agreed to perform a massage on an undercover officer for $60, though she has no license to do so. Following the massage, she allegedly offered to perform a sexual act for $100.

Also, in February of 2007, she was charged with three misdemeanor violations for operating a cell phone while driving and driving without a license. She was later charged in July 2007 for failing to appear in court for those charges.

According to the DA., Zheng went into labor on May 9 and delivered her baby at New York Hospital Queens. After being discharged, she took the baby home, but before her husband returned she allegedly took the baby to Holly Avenue, the home of her pastor Kenny Yu, and left her between a storm door and the front door.

Apparently, Zheng’s husband was unaware she was still pregnant. According to the DA, Zheng told her husband she had an abortion. When she went into labor she allegedly told her husband she was having complications from the abortion.
Yu’s daughter Kristina Yu found the baby at about 9.40 p.m. that evening when she heard crying sounds. Accompanying the baby was a black diaper bag. Yu called 911 and police took the infant to Flushing Hospital Medical Center, where medical personnel discovered the infant was wearing a hospital identification bracelet from New York Hospital. Police used the bracelet to obtain surveillance footage of the mother from the hospital. According to published reports, Kristina Yu was familiar with Zheng as she previously babysat her son, who has since returned to China; she aided police in identifying Zheng.

Dr. Apostolis Tsoumpariotis, the pediatric attending physician at Flushing Hospital, said the baby, weighing 7-pounds, 8-ounces, was dong well. There were no obvious areas of injury and the baby didn’t look as if she had been abused, he said.

“The care appeared proper,” he said.
The baby was to be released to the custody of the Administration for Child Services when medically cleared.
Zheng could have relinquished her baby without fear of prosecution if she followed the state’s Safe Haven law.

Under the law, a baby no more than five days old can be given to an appropriate person - such as a firefighter, police officer, nurse or even a family friend fit to care for the child. A child may also be left in a safe location as long as the parent promptly calls or contacts an appropriate person to tell them exactly where the child is.
However, it can be difficult getting this information out to immigrant communities, said Tim Jaccard, a police medic and the founder and president of the AMT Children of Hope Foundation. He is the author of the Safe Haven law.

“I would love to have material printed up in Chinese. It would be a phenomenal achievement,” Jaccard said. However, the financial resources are not available. The foundation has recently created a universal “Safe Haven” sign, depicting a baby’s face in a hand, and has begun putting them up in various locations to let people know where they can relinquish their newborn if necessary.

Also, illegal immigrants are terrified that if they come forward, they will be deported, he said. He added the foundation does not release information regarding national status to authorities.

Jaccard said there have been eight cases this year in the metropolitan area where parents have relinquished their babies using the Safe Haven law. A total of 120 babies have been relinquished since the foundation began the program in 1999.

This is the third child abandonment case in Queens to make headlines in recent months. In February, livery cab driver Klever Sailema dropped off a 6-month-old baby at a firehouse in Corona and initially told police another man had abandoned the baby in his vehicle. It was later revealed that Sailema was involved in a scheme to help an overburdened father in the Bronx, who told his neighbors the girl’s young mother had disappeared and he couldn’t take care of the baby alone.

And in December, four Elmhurst teenagers were hailed as heroes when they found a baby just hours-old abandoned in a dumpster on Lamont Avenue.

AMT Children of Hope Foundation has a hotline that expecting mothers can call for advice or parents can call if they wish to relinquish their child. That number is 1-877-796-HOPE.