Man who left son in car gets probation, $500 fine

Erica D. Johnson

Thursday, Jan. 22, 2004 | 11:17 a.m.

The Las Vegas man who left his 2-year-old son alone in the car while he ran into a local Starbucks pleaded no contest this morning to a single gross misdemeanor count of child endangerment.

Justice of the Peace Tony Abbatangelo placed Won Chong on informal probation for a period of six months. He was also ordered to pay a $500 fine and attend parenting classes.

Abbatangelo said Chong was to "stay out of trouble" for six months. If he is arrested for any other crime during that time he could serve an underlying sentence of 60 days in jail.

Chong left his sleeping son in the car while he went into a Starbucks on Durango Drive last summer.

The car was running and the doors were unlocked. The child was not injured. Chong told police that the child had been up all night crying and he left the boy in the car because he didn't want to wake him up, police said.

Chong's attorney, David Amesbury, said this morning that he didn't think his client should have been charged in the first place.

"I think it was overcharged," he said. "I think police should have issued a misdemeanor citation."

Amesbury said the "rash" of cases last summer in which parents left their children alone in cars could have led to prosecutors' decision to charge Chong.

Chong's sentence was similar to that of Maria Door Soto, who also was ordered to perform 50 hours of community service. Door Soto had left her 16-month-old son, Edwin, in the car in June while she went into a shoe store near Decatur Boulevard and Meadows Lane. The car was stolen with the child inside but recovered about five hours later with the child safe inside.

Two other parents whose children died last summer after they were left in cars alone were not charged. In those cases, prosecutors said, state law requires parents to knowingly or intentionally leave their children alone in order to be charged. Those parents did not realize they had left their children in their vehicles.

Police still are investigating the case of an 8-year-old girl who was was found safe last month after the sport utility vehicle she was in was stolen from the gas pump area of a convenience store on Tropicana Avenue at Decatur Boulevard.

Police may recommend that the girl's mother face charges for leaving her child alone in the vehicle, Metro Police spokeswoman Carla Alston said.