WOMAN TO BE REUNITED WITH NEWBORN SHE LEFT

Sunday, September 14, 2003
Source: The Miami Herald

A 21-year-old woman was to be reunited with her newborn son Saturday after prosecutors decided not to file child-abuse charges against her for abandoning the infant on a beach after she gave birth.

Miami-Dade County prosecutors said Friday that Teresa Jiménez García, who was temporarily in South Florida from Mexico, likely was suffering from a medical condition that may have left her confused and led her to leave her baby on the sand. Police found the boy shortly after he was born in late July.

Attorney David Kubiliun said that Jiménez doesn't remember how she got to the beach but that she remembers feeling pain in her stomach before going to nearby brush, where she gave birth. She left to wash herself in the ocean when the baby was found and she was approached by police.

''There was never any intent to abandon this child,'' Kubiliun said Saturday.

Kubiliun said Jiménez was on a flight to Mexico on Saturday afternoon. She plans to marry the baby's father and raise a family there, he said.