Am I going to get in legal trouble for child abandonment?

[amsal]

I really wasn't sure which subject to put this question in, so apologies if it is the wrong section.

My roommate had to go out of town to deal with a family issue. She asked me to watch her daughter while she was gone. At the time told her that I had a trip coming up with my bf so I could only watch her daughter until then. She understood so the plan was I would watch her daughter for four day.

While she was gone she asked if I would be okay if she extended her trip for a few more days. I reminded her about my trip. So she got a new plane ticket that would have had her arriving back today at 1pm. My bf and I also had plane ticket to leave for our trip today at 10am. So the new plan was my bf and I would drop her daughter off at school then head for the airport. Then my roommate would pick her daughter up from school as she would be home by then.

So my bf and I dropped her daughter off today like planned. While we were in line at airport security my roommate called me and told me her flight got cancelled because of weather and since she didn't know when she would get back she asked me to pick up her daughter. I told her I couldn't because I was already at the airport. She did seem a little surprised because she thought my flight was later tonight at 10pm, not 10am (even thought the text message said am). Anyway she said she would call some other people and hung up.

A while later as we are getting ready to board the plane my roommate calls again and says she could not find anyone to pick up and watch her daughter and asked me to cancel my trip and pick her up. This trip was very expensive though and my bf and I had to schedule a week off work. So I told her that she would have to find someone else and told her we were boarding and I had to go. So I hung up and put my phone in airplane mode and we boarded the plane.

My bf and I got to our hotel and I finally looked at my phone and it has a bunch of messages from my roommate. In them she talks about me committing child abandonment and since I was the last one in charge of her daughter I was responsible and she's going to tell the police. So now I'm freaked out. Am I going to get in trouble for this. I only agreed to watch her daughter until she got to school this morning. I do have text messages confirming my roommate knew that.

We all live in California

 

[Just Blue]

I really wasn't sure which subject to put this question in, so apologies if it is the wrong section.

My roommate had to go out of town to deal with a family issue. She asked me to watch her daughter while she was gone. At the time told her that I had a trip coming up with my bf so I could only watch her daughter until then. She understood so the plan was I would watch her daughter for four day.

While she was gone she asked if I would be okay if she extended her trip for a few more days. I reminded her about my trip. So she got a new plane ticket that would have had her arriving back today at 1pm. My bf and I also had plane ticket to leave for our trip today at 10am. So the new plan was my bf and I would drop her daughter off at school then head for the airport. Then my roommate would pick her daughter up from school as she would be home by then.

So my bf and I dropped her daughter off today like planned. While we were in line at airport security my roommate called me and told me her flight got cancelled because of weather and since she didn't know when she would get back she asked me to pick up her daughter. I told her I couldn't because I was already at the airport. She did seem a little surprised because she thought my flight was later tonight at 10pm, not 10am (even thought the text message said am). Anyway she said she would call some other people and hung up.

A while later as we are getting ready to board the plane my roommate calls again and says she could not find anyone to pick up and watch her daughter and asked me to cancel my trip and pick her up. This trip was very expensive though and my bf and I had to schedule a week off work. So I told her that she would have to find someone else and told her we were boarding and I had to go. So I hung up and put my phone in airplane mode and we boarded the plane.

My bf and I got to our hotel and I finally looked at my phone and it has a bunch of messages from my roommate. In them she talks about me committing child abandonment and since I was the last one in charge of her daughter I was responsible and she's going to tell the police. So now I'm freaked out. Am I going to get in trouble for this. I only agreed to watch her daughter until she got to school this morning. I do have text messages confirming my roommate knew that.

We all live in California

How old is this child?

 

[amsal]

How old is this child?

How old is this child?

She is 10

 

[Just Blue]

She is 10

You should consult with a Criminal Defense Attorney.

I'm going to tag a few of the attorneys that volunteer here. One of them is @Ohiogal who is a Juvenile/Family Law Attorney as well as a Guardian Ad Litem .

@Taxing Matters @zddoodah

In my opinion, you left this child knowing that her parent would not be able to get her. That is (IMO) child neglect.

 

[Taxing Matters]

This the problem with scheduling things so close together. These kinds of delays are known to occur, so you and your roommate should have had plans for what to if there were any problems in either of your schedules. Of course it's 20/20 hindsight now, but in the future should you be asked to do something like this you ought to decline if you wont have the time available to ensure the kid is safe if the parent is delayed for some reason and don't have a back up plan of another person who can step in to help if needed.

What happened with the child? Did she suffer any injury or trauma from this? It's possible that both you and the child's mother could face some kind of criminal charges depending on all the facts. The chances of that in this kind of situation are much more likely if the child suffered any kind of harm from the time gap between school letting out and her mother (or other trusted person) picked her up. And of course, it matters greatly if the incident is reported or not. If the roommate never reports it, nothing will come of it.

Beware that if the child suffered any injury as a result of this, you might also be sued by the roommate in a personal injury lawsuit as well.

 

[Just Blue]

Is the little girl okay? Do you even know?

 

[adjusterjack]

. I only agreed to watch her daughter until she got to school this morning.

Yeah, so what happened when the girl came out of school that afternoon and nobody was there to pick her up.

Or did the roommate get somebody to pick her up after all and she's just blowing smoke because you didn't?

 

[stealth2]

And of course, it matters greatly if the incident is reported or not. If the roommate never reports it, nothing will come of it.

It is, of course, also entirely possible that the school called the police if no one came for the child w/in a reasonable time after the end of the school day.

 

[LdiJ]

It is, of course, also entirely possible that the school called the police if no one came for the child w/in a reasonable time after the end of the school day.

Unless mom is an idiot she would have found SOMEONE to get her daughter or found a way to get back to get her daughter herself. It may be the cynic in me, but I suspect that based on the fact that mom actually wanted to stay another few days, that mom completely lied about getting that 1PM flight and was hoping to con her roommate into cancelling her vacation.

 

[stealth2]

Unless mom is an idiot she would have found SOMEONE to get her daughter or found a way to get back to get her daughter herself. It may be the cynic in me, but I suspect that based on the fact that mom actually wanted to stay another few days, that mom completely lied about getting that 1PM flight and was hoping to con her roommate into cancelling her vacation.

Quite possible. Although it was for a family "situation" so may not have been for pleasure, and with the way the weather's been of late (and we don't know where she went) it's also entirely possible that there were flight delays.

 

[AlmostThere]

I think that Mom put OP in a horrible situation.
HOWEVER -OP did not abandon the child - the child was in the care of the school as agreed upon. OP did not leave the child in a dangerous situation.

 

[Just Blue]

Unless mom is an idiot she would have found SOMEONE to get her daughter or found a way to get back to get her daughter herself. It may be the cynic in me, but I suspect that based on the fact that mom actually wanted to stay another few days, that mom completely lied about getting that 1PM flight and was hoping to con her roommate into cancelling her vacation.

There were HUGE amounts of flight delays/cancellations due to the weather in California. I know this for fact due to my job. Many of our customers had to cancellation their reservations in Cali because of cancelled flights. They couldn't fly in or out of that state.

 

[Taxing Matters]

I think that Mom put OP in a horrible situation.
HOWEVER -OP did not abandon the child - the child was in the care of the school as agreed upon. OP did not leave the child in a dangerous situation.

Schools close and staff leave at the end of the day. The school isn't going to stay there with her for God knows how many hours hoping the parent will be along soon to pick up the kid. Where I am it wouldn't take much more than an hour after the school closed of the kid being left there with no clear plan to pick her up before they called CPS to pick up the kid. And that's something the mother and OP would really not want to have happen. Having the flight home for Mom scheduled only hours before the OP was to leave on her own trip with no contingency planning if something went wrong strikes me as negligent. OP doesn't say why the roommate extended the trip, but it sounded to me like it was something the roommate wanted to do rather than something that prevented her from returning home as originally planned. This was something that could have been avoided had they thought more than one step ahead to ensure they'd have no problems.

 

[cbg]

Understanding that Mom may not have had many options due to the weather delays but wasn't it HER responsibility to see that there was a contingency plan? After all, the OP had been saying right from the beginning that she was not available to care for the child after a certain, specific, designated and known to Mom point in time. Why is this on the OP? Why wasn't MOM the one responsible for seeing that there was already a contingency plan in place?

 

[LdiJ]

Understanding that Mom may not have had many options due to the weather delays but wasn't it HER responsibility to see that there was a contingency plan? After all, the OP had been saying right from the beginning that she was not available to care for the child after a certain, specific, designated and known to Mom point in time. Why is this on the OP? Why wasn't MOM the one responsible for seeing that there was already a contingency plan in place?

That is a very valid point.