Woman Arrested For Neglect After Leaving 2 Children with Store Employee Overnight

LADY LAKE, Florida—A woman is in the Lake County Jail after leaving two children overnight with a gas station employee she did not know, according to an arrest affidavit.

Around 6 a.m. Sunday, Lady Lake Police Department responded to Circle K, 3 La Grande Boulevard, Lady Lake on a report of two abandoned children. When they arrived, an employee told officers an unknown woman, later identified as April Maxwell, 39, came into the store around 10 p.m. Saturday and left the children, aged 7 and 13. The employee said he believed the woman was under the influence of narcotics due to her behavior and he kept an eye on the children throughout the night, according to the affidavit. The relationship between Maxwell and the children is redacted from the affidavit.

The store manager arrived at the store at 5 a.m. Sunday and reviewed store surveillance video that showed Maxwell entering the store at 9:55 p.m. Saturday with two children and then leaving by herself a short time later. The manager waited until 6 a.m. and when Maxwell still did not return, she called LLPD.

Officers found a man sleeping in a golf cart in front of the store and after several minutes he finally woke up and told police he was friends with Maxwell and he was watching the kids while she got air in her golf cart tire. “As I was speaking to (him) it took roughly five minutes to get a coherent statement out of him due to the level of intoxication and being under the influence of illegal narcotics,” the LLPD officer noted in the affidavit.

The man called Maxwell and told her cops were looking for her and about 45 minutes later Maxwell was spotted driving a golf cart south on La Grande Boulevard. She told officers she arrived at Circle K around 9:55 p.m. Saturday with three children and left two of the children with the male employee because he is an acquaintance and she “felt comfortable leaving the kids at the store with him,” the affidavit states.

She went on to explain the air was low in one of her golf cart tires, so she took a 4-year-old child with her to get air at Wawa in Sumter County, while leaving the two older children with the store clerk. Maxwell, who appeared to be under the influence of narcotics, told police she did not think leaving the children at the store put their lives in danger,” according to the affidavit.

The Department of Children and Families (DCF) responded to the scene; the agency had already been searching for Maxwell for about a week because of prior cases, the arresting officer noted. Maxwell refused a drug screen and she was arrested by LLPD for two counts of domestic child neglect and driving while license suspended.

The two older children were dirty and exhausted and DCF took them and the 4-year-old into its custody. Maxwell was transported to the Lake County Jail, where she is being held on $11,000 bond.

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