Mother Arrested after
Leaving Children at Library
A 20-year-old mother, charged with three counts of contributing to the abuse or neglect of a child for abandoning her three young children at the Virginia Beach (Va.) Central Library, was released without bond to her brother’s custody August 24 and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
Roszina Mack told police she needed a break from her children, an 8-month-old boy and 2-1/2-year-old twin girls, and felt the library was a safe place to leave them. She said she had become increasingly depressed after she broke up with the children’s father 45 days earlier, and that she unsuccessfully tried to place the children in foster care, the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reported August 24.
The children were calm and quiet when they were found alone in a little-used area of the library August 21, said Pat Cook, an information services librarian. Staff called the local Child Abuse Hotline shortly afterwards.
A trial is scheduled for October 2. If convicted, Mack could receive up to a year in jail and be fined up to $2,500 on each count.
Posted August 28, 2000.
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