Mother arrested for locking young children in room alone to go to bar
CLEVELAND – Police body camera footage shows a heart-wrenching scene inside a Cleveland home after police got a call who could hear non-stop crying coming from multiple children.
Their mother, Liz Yomaris Torres Rivera, faces charges for child endangering.
The video, obtained by sister station WJW, shows responding officers kick in the front door and look around, with no immediate sign of children. They keep investigating, hear crying inside the apartment and eventually find three children, ages 2,3 and 5, locked in a room.
Soon after that, the children’s mother walks in and asks, “What’s up?”
An officer stops her from going into the room where the children are, says, “You weren’t worried about the kids when you locked ‘em in the bedroom and you took off, were you?”
He continues, “Smell like you’ve been drinking. Coming from a bar. Where were you at? Benny’s?”
The mother answers, “Yeah.”
A WJW news crew went to the house to try to speak with Rivera, only to find that the landlord had kicked her out. A note said the property had been damaged. Police said they found garbage, bugs, a nasty smell, and it “felt about 90 to 95 degrees inside.”
Now, the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services also has an open case with the mother. Officials says the children are currently with a relative.
WJW reports that she plans to plead not guilty.
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