Cops: LI Mom's DWI Leaves Daughter, Son With Head Injuries
HUNTINGTON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) - A Wyandanch woman has been charged with driving while intoxicated under Leandra's Law after police said she crashed her car, injuring her two young children in the back seat.
Laquita Brooks, 39, kept her head down as she faced the judge Friday morning, WCBS 880's Sophia Hall reported. She pleaded not guilty at her arraignment for DWI charges and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
"I apologize," she told reporters before her court appearance. "I love them."
Cops: LI Mom's DWI Leaves Daughter, Son With Head Injuries
Police said she apparently lost control of her car just before 11 p.m. Thursday on Dix Hills Road in Huntington. The car struck a sign and then a tree, police said.
As CBS 2's Steve Langford reported, police said Brooks admitted she'd been drinking earlier and had been on her cellphone while she was behind the wheel.
Brooks' 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son were both in the back seat of the car at the time of the crash and neither one was in a child seat, police said.
"When I came out last night, I saw the EMTs and the rescue crew working at the car trying to get the little girl out," a woman who lives nearby, who did not want to be identified, told CBS 2's Steve Langford.
The daughter suffered a serious head injury, police said. The boy suffered a minor head injury. Both were hospitalized.
At her court appearance Friday, the judge gave Brooks a warning.
"I'm not taking away your children, but it could happen in the future," the judge told her.
Outside court, Brooks said she wants to see her kids again.
"It's a shame, you know," Brooks' landlord Effie Jennings told Langford. "She's a very good mother, very beautiful mother. She loves her kids, she do all she can do for her kids."
Brooks is being held on $2,500 bond or $1,000 bail.
Detectives want anyone with information to contact them at 631-854-8252.
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