The 4-year-old was not injured, but was neglected, the appeals court ruled.
CARTERET -- A former Carteret resident neglected her three young children when she left them home alone for an hour to take a walk in February 2013, an appeals court ruled.
One of her children was found walking barefoot down borough streets looking for his mother on the February night in 2013.
The woman told police that she left her kids alone because she needed to relieve the financial stress of single parenthood.
A 2014 Family Court ruling of "neglect or abuse" was upheld in an Appellate Division decision that came down Thursday. The woman has since regained custody of her kids and moved to Florida, but she's subject to supervision there, and had tried to overturn the designation.
According to the ruling, police got a call at about 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 20, 2013 about a child who was walking barefoot outside with just a T-shirt and pants on. When police had the child take them to his house, they found a 1-year-old and 7-month-old inside, also alone.
An hour later, the mom came home. She was so upset that she was taken to the hospital for a crisis evaluation, the judges wrote. Her kids were temporarily placed in their grandmother's custody.
The appeals court ruled that although her kids were healthy and she did not mean to harm them, they were too young to be left at home alone.
Brian Amaral may be reached at bamaral@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bamaral44. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
