Charges claim kids left in cold

A mother who left home to attend her estranged husband?s probation meeting is charged with child neglect for leaving her two children locked out in the cold.

The suspect, Angela Darlene Rines Perez, 32, is charged with child neglect for the incident which occurred Friday afternoon following school. The Department of Children?s Services has also obtained temporary custody of the children pending the completion of their investigation.

According to arrest warrants against Perez, the incident was uncovered when officer Kenneth Seagraves, who lives in the neighborhood, heard some children screaming and yelling nearby as he was leaving his home. Upon closer investigation, Seagraves learned the 8-year-old and 13-year-old daughters of Perez had gotten off the bus to find their house locked and their mother gone.

The younger child, the warrant noted, had no coat despite the fact the temperature at the time was under 40 degrees. The older daughter had gone to another home nearby, Seagraves noted, leaving the younger sister by herself. A neighbor later took the child in and fed her while waiting for the mother to return.

An investigation revealed Perez locked the doors and left to attend her estranged husband?s meeting at 3:45 p.m. at the probation office even though the children normally arrive home on the bus around that same time. The children did not have a key.

The brush with the law concerning her children is not the first for Perez, who is presently on probation for a year for failure to keep her children in school.