Judge rules Connecticut mom accused of leaving baby in hot van cannot be alone with child
NORWALK (WABC) -- The Connecticut mother accused of leaving her child alone in a hot car while she worked out at the gym is no longer allowed to be alone with her baby, at least for now.
That ruling from a judge during a court appearance Tuesday morning.
Investigators say that Hiroko Kurihara left her 4-month-old in her hot SUV in a parking garage for an hour while she visited a fitness center in Norwalk. Police say it was the second time Kurihara left the child alone that day.
The judge said that if Kurihara's husband isn't around, she needs some other type of supervision with the child as the case moves forward.
It was the quick thinking of an assistant teacher who works at the Children's Corner Learning Center that may have saved the child's life.
Alicia Reid was on her lunch break and making a phone call in her car around noon when she kept hearing the desperate cries of a baby, alerting her that something was not right.
"Why do I still hear the baby?" she said "So something told me to just get up and look in the cars around you...I started to walk to the car that was over here, and I looked through the window, and that's when I saw the baby...all by himself with the windows rolled up, kicking and screaming."
Unable to get into Toyota Land Cruiser, she called her supervisor, who then called Norwalk combined dispatch.
Police and firefighters responded and spent several minutes trying to unlock the vehicle before breaking the window to free the crying baby.
Related story: Baby freed from hot car after Connecticut Good Samaritan calls 911
