On Saturday, June 24, 2017, Deputy J. Plunkett form the Charles County Sheriff’s Office responded to the TJ Maxx located at Waldorf Market Place, in Waldorf, for the report of an unattended child in a vehicle.
Upon arrival, police met with a witness who advised them she observed a white BMW with three children in it who were unattended. While talking the witness, police observed Ashante Yvonne Harrod, 28, of Waldorf, walk up to the vehicle. Police had confirmed that all three children were by themselves, and appeared to be in good health. The three children that were left unattended were a 2-year-old male infant, 7-year-old girl, and an 8-year-old girl.
Two of the three children were Ashante Harrod’s, the third child (7-year-old girl) is her sisters child. Police made contact with that child’s mother and advised her of the incident.
Ashante Yvonne Harrod, was served a criminal summons on August 23, 2017, by the Charles County Sheriff’s Office charging her with two counts of “confine unattended child”.
Maryland law prohibits children younger than 8 from being “locked or confined” in an enclosed space, such as a house or car, unless the enclosure is within view or someone older than 13 is there “to protect the child.”
Harrod is scheduled to appear in Charles County District Court on September 25, 2017, for a Preliminary Inquiry.
