Monterey County DA charges mother of rescued girl whose newborn was found dead on roadside
Crime Scene File Photo.
MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. - The Monterey County District Attorney on Wednesday charged the grandmother of "Baby Angelita" with child endangerment and other crimes after the woman’s 14-year-old daughter – accused of killing her own newborn child – was found in Mexico along with her father who is suspected of impregnating her.
Mother allegedly let teen daughter drive, work in fields
Dig deeper:
Jeannine M. Pacioni’s office said Ofelia Garcia Ortega, 36, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with two felony counts of displaying or possessing a forged identification card, and one misdemeanor count each of permitting a child to suffer or be endangered and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office said an investigation revealed Garcia Ortega allegedly "put her daughter to work in agricultural fields at age 13 using falsified documentation, allowed her to drive without a license, and allowed her to remain completely out of school."
The woman is being held in jail on $150,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned at the Superior Court of California County of Monterey at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Ortega was also arrested on a child endangerment charge in September, though she subsequently posted bail and was released from custody, Monterey County authorities said.
Monterey County sheriff finds car tied to Amber Alert for missing teen girl, father
The Monterey County Sheriff's Department says the car associated with an Amber Alert issued over the weekend has been located.
Newborn found on roadside
The backstory:
Around Aug. 1, the teenager gave birth to a baby girl on Struve Road near a strawberry field in Moss Landing and killed the infant, according to authorities.
Authorities issued an Amber Alert for the girl in the days following the discovery, alleging that the girl was a victim who was abused by her father, 38-year-old Sergio Galvez Perez.
The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday said it "received confirmation" that the teenage girl had been safely recovered by authorities in Mexico, and that her father had also been arrested in the country.
The Monterey County District Attorney’s office has charged the father with sexual assault related to his daughter but has not charged the teenager in the infant's killing.
What they're saying:
The teenage girl is both a victim of incest and a murder suspect, the sheriff's department said in September.
"Unfortunately, two things can be true at the same time. You can be both a victim, and you can be a suspect," Sheriff Tina Nieto said previously.
Without elaborating, the sheriff said they had evidence pointing toward the teenage mother as the one who killed the baby.
The Source: Information for this story came from the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine M. Pacioni’s office, and from previous KTVU reporting.