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Abandoned Baby's Mother A Prostitute With 6 Other Kids
By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 26, 2009
Modified Jun 26, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 26, 2009
Modified Jun 26, 2009
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Nassau County police and prosecutor offered grim details behind a 24-year-old woman's abandonment of her days old baby. According to Newsday, Xiomara Gamez "has six other children, ages 8 and younger, and admitted to being addicted to cocaine during her latest pregnancy." Detective Lt. Ray Cote said that Gamez gave birth to the baby girl in the basement of an abandoned building, cared for her for two days, and then decided to leave the baby—wrapped in a blanket and tucked into a shoebox— in a Hempstead apartment building because she knew other Hispanic families lived there. He added, "She was down on her luck. She supported herself by selling herself." A relative called the police with a tip about Gamez, an illegal immigrant, who previously worked in a factory; her lawyer said the other children with her with ex-husband. A judge ordered her held on $250,000 cash bail/$500,000 bond on "first-degree reckless endangerment, abandonment of a child and endangering the welfare of a child."
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abandoned baby
hempstead
nassau county
Safe Haven
shoebox
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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