Albany, NY - January 29, 2017 - Suffolk County Police have arrested a man for Endangering the Welfare of a Child after he allowed his thirteen-year-old daughter to drive with a three-year-old child in the backseat on Saturday, January 27.
A Second Precinct Community Support Unit officer observed a 1995 Toyota Camry being driven erratically while travelling northbound on Oakwood Road in Huntington Station on January 27 at approximately 6:30 p.m. The officer initiated a traffic stop of the vehicle and determined that a thirteen-year-old girl was driving. The girl’s father, Alejandro Noriega, was in the front passenger seat. There was a three-year-old male child in a child safety seat in the back seat of the vehicle. Noriega had been entrusted by a friend to baby-sit the boy.
Noriega, 45, of Huntington Station, was arrested and charged with two counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. He was also issued a summons for Permitting Unlicensed Operation. The thirteen-year-old girl was released to her mother at the scene. The three-year-old boy was released to his mother at the Second Precinct.
Noriega will be held overnight at the Second Precinct and is scheduled to be arraigned on January 28 at First District Court in Central Islip.
A criminal charge is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.