3 charged with leaving children in hot cars in Harris County within about a week, records show

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- It has now been more than six weeks since a 9-year-old girl died in Galena Park after investigators say her mother left her in a hot car and went to work.

No criminal charges have been filed yet in that case.

Harris County investigators say the child's cause of death hasn't been determined yet, so the case hasn't yet been presented to the district attorney's office.

"They're not rushing to judgement. They want to look at all the facts and circumstances before they make a charging decision," attorney Brent Mayr said.

Mayr isn't involved in the case, but he is the former head of the Harris County District Attorney's Vehicular Crimes Division.

He said, although many cases involving children in hot cars are accidental and tragic, they almost always lead to serious criminal charges.

"It's a difficult balance, but the legislature and the people of Texas have made it clear that we want parents and guardians and people in charge of children to be cautious," Mayr said.

According to the Texas Heath and Human Services Department, there have already been more cases of children dying in parked cars in Texas this year than in all of last year, and, summer isn't over yet.

ABC13 pulled court records, and learned that in just in the past 10 days, there have been at least three people in Harris County charged with leaving children who they were responsible for inside parked cars.

Last Sunday, a father is accused of leaving his 15 month old in the car without air conditioning for an hour while he ate at a restaurant in River Oaks.

That child was taken to the hospital, police say, but expected to be OK.

Temperatures, police say, were at or near 96 degrees.

On Monday, records show a babysitter is accused of leaving a two year old in the backseat of her car. The A/C, investigators say, was turned off while she shopped.

Also on Monday, investigators say a nurse left her one year old child in a car while she went to dinner.

Investigators say the air conditioning was on and there was a camera in the car, but temperatures they say, hit 100 degrees.

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