PHOENIX — A Phoenix woman was arrested on child abuse charges after she went to a party with her 9-year-old nonverbal son and then left him in the car when she returned home, according to court documents.
Officers responded to a missing child call on Oct. 29 in south Phoenix and were told the by the child's grandmother that the 9-year-old had not returned with his mother when she came home early that morning from a party she attended with her son the night before, the court records said. The grandmother told police the boy was nonverbal and unable to see.
Officers were able to figure out the car the mother, identified as 27-year-old Rocio Avalos, was driving. They found the vehicle after circling the neighborhood and saw the boy slumped over in the backseat "in distress," the documents said. The doors to the car were locked, so officers broke the window. Officers took the child to Phoenix Children's Hospital for precautionary reasons. His condition was not given.
Avalos was arrested for physical abuse to a child. Her bond was set at $5,000.
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