Upset Middletown parents cited after baby left behind

A Middletown mother and father are facing misdemeanor child endangering charges after their baby boy was found on the side of the road.

Officers were called to 4019 Helton Drive about 6:30 p.m. Sunday on a report of people fighting about a baby.

Tonya Willis and Katrin Thornton told officers a baby had been left on the side of the road for 30 minutes. Willis said she took the baby back to her apartment and later came back to find the parents had returned. An argument then broke out, according to the report.

Jessica Griffin, mother of 4-month-old Bentley, told police her mother had died suddenly on Friday and her mind was elsewhere.

Griffin gathered up her other three children along with Anthony Keith, Bentley’s father, and they went to Little Caesars, according to the report.

“When they got there and ordered pizza … they turned around to give the kids some pizza (and) one of the other kids asked where Bentley was,” according to the report. The family went speeding back to Helton, realizing they left Bentley on the side of the road, they said.

The officer said Griffin and Keith were “very upset” and Griffin was crying.

The officer checked the family residence after determining Butler County Children Services had previously had several cases of neglect involving the mother. The apartment where they were staying with a friend was small, but Griffin indicated she was in the process of getting her own apartment, according to the report.

The children appeared to be clean and well-fed, the officer said in the report.

Griffin and Keith were issued citations for child endangering because the boy had been alone for 30 minutes. Griffin declined comment about the incident.

Middletown Police Maj. Mark Hoffman said it will be up to children services to decide if an investigation is opened, but police are not doing any additional investigation.

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