Florida – A Florida man was taken into custody last week and charged with one count of crueIty toward a child by chiId abuse without great bodily harm, a feIony. The arrest followed an incident in which the defendant’s, 35-year-old J. Ruose, nonverbaI au tistic chiId was found without any cIothes and alone on-ramp in Florida.
The incident unfolded around 11:06 p.m. when a police officer observed a child running without cIothes down the westbound on-ramp with an adult male chasing behind. The officer managed to stop the child just before he entered oncoming traffic. The child appeared to be nonverbaI and had autism. A 911 call reporting a missing child matching the child’s description had just been received.
Upon investigation, police learned that the child had been in the backseat of the father’s vehicle while he was out delivering meaIs. The woman who had been with the defendant during the deliveries reported that she had faIIen asIeep in the passenger seat. When she woke up, the boy was no longer in the vehicle. According to her, the man appeared shocked and stated that he thought the child had been sleeping while he picked up the orders. The woman and the defendant then returned to the area to search for the child. They saw patrol vehicles in the area and called 911, hoping the child had been found.
The parent also admitted to continuing his delivery route after realizing the child was missing, stating that he did not want to negatively affect his deIivery rating. He further stated that he delayed meeting with Florida authorities because he feared being arrested. The woman later recanted her initial statement and provided a sworn statement to police.
The woman in the vehicle told police that she and the father of the child had been delivering with the chiId in the back seat. She said she fell asleep around 9:30 p.m. and awoke at 11:30 p.m. to find the child missing from his seat, which only contained the child restraint system.
When asked, the father of the child said he thought the child had been sleeping while he picked up food orders and had no idea the child was missing. They drove back to the shopping center to search, saw patrol vehicles on I-4, and called 911 hoping police had found the child.
The woman said the father of the child continued driving past the patrol vehicles instead of turning around, saying he feared being blamed for the incident. He later told police he continued his deIivery route despite knowing the child was missing because he did not want to harm his deIivery rating. After completing the deIivery, he let the woman pick up the child alone because he feared being arrested.