A 25-year-old Texas mother was arrested on child endangerment charges for allegedly forcing her six children to live in appallingly “unsanitary conditions” after several of them were found running through the streets in the rain naked and barefoot.
Samantha Lee Abrego was taken into custody on Saturday and charged with six counts of abandoning or endangering a child with criminal neglect, a second-degree felony, records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
A second-degree felony in Texas is punishable by between two and 20 years in a state correctional facility.
Samantha Lee Abrego (Brownsville Police Department)
According to a report from Weslaco, Texas, ABC affiliate KRGV, officers with the Brownsville Police Department responded at about 5:30 p.m. on Saturday to the parking lot of the Tropical Garden Apartments in the 200 block of Ash Street after receiving multiple reports regarding young children who were playing in a parking lot unattended.
Once there, first responders found three children, some of whom were completely nude and barefoot, running through the parking lot during a cold front. The temperature that evening reached a low of 59 degrees.
The officers corralled the children and learned they lived in a nearby apartment with their mother.
Police said when they knocked on the door, they were greeted by Abrego, who had a “sluggish demeanor” and appeared to have only recently woken up, Brownsville, Texas, NBC and CBS affiliate KVEO reported.
Officers noticed a foul odor coming from inside her apartment. The officers also noticed three additional children — ranging in age from 2 to 8 — inside the apartment.
Police described the apartment as extremely unsanitary. Several of the children were naked and appeared as though they had not showered for an extended period of time, authorities said.
“Inside the apartment, there were stains of feces on the walls and couches,” police wrote in their report. “The children also appeared to have dry stains of feces on their faces.”
Abrego was arrested, and child protective services personnel were called along with Abrego’s mother, who was given custody of her six grandchildren.
Abrego was booked into the Brownsville City Jail. She was released from detention after posting $36,000 bond.
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