Parents face neglect charges after child found wandering while they went clubbing in Miami Beach
MIAMI BEACH - A mother and father are speaking out exclusively to CBS News Miami after police said they left their four children home alone, while they went to nightclubs on Miami Beach.
"We are not bad parents," an emotional Ciera Hurd said. "We made a bad mistake."
"We never leave them like this," she said, adding that they will never ever do it again and that she loves her kids more than anyone can ever imagine.
Daryl Lentz, her husband, said they are "definitely" sorry they left the kids alone. He said it was a "misfortune that happened."
"Just try to be as close as possible to your kids," he said, when asked if he had advice for other parents in this situation.
Hurd and Lentz are facing charges of child neglect with no great bodily harm and were released on their own recognizance after a court appearance Thursday in Miami-Dade County.
Police said the incident happened on Tuesday last week. They said the couple left their children home alone in their third-floor apartment at Ocean Drive for 4 1/2 hours, while they went out "clubbing" to places including Club Madonna.
They said that a 2-year-old girl was able to get out of the apartment and walk down three flights of stairs and was found wandering by someone.
CBS News Miami spoke off camera to the Good Samaritan who found her around midnight and he said the child was crying for her mother. The person comforted her and called police.
Miami Beach police posted a photo on Instagram of an officer also comforting the little girl.
The children in the apartment also were a 12-year-old boy, an 11-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy.
The couple said they had come to Miami Beach from Baltimore to celebrate their son's fifth birthday and the father's 40th birthday.
Lentz said he told the 12-year-old boy "to lock the door, but I guess he fell asleep and he wasn't paying attention."
"Even if they are old enough and you say lock the door, don't do that," Hurd added.
During an appearance in bond court, both parents were lectured by Circuit Court Judge Mindy Glazer, who is also a mother.
"Don't leave your kids alone," she told Hurd. "Something terrible could happen to your children. You think they are sleeping and you never know. They are very curious, and they wake up and they are looking for their mom."
Glazer told Lentz, "Don't leave kids alone ever, for one moment. I know you want to have fun, but kids can wake up and do things and anything can happen."
The parents said they are staying in South Florida because there is a hearing on Oct. 1 in Miami-Dade County regarding their children. They are in the Florida Department of Children & Families.
"We are trying to get our kids back as soon as possible," Lentz said. "This is a hurtful and we don't know what we are going to do. We have no money."
"We have never been away from our children, not even for one day," said Hurd.
Records show that Hurd was convicted of child neglect in Baltimore in 2018, she said, because of an incident in which one of her children ran out of their home while the child was nude.