Mom Aquitted Of Child Abandonment Charges

An acquittal today for Caleigh Dawn Shea--the mother accused of endangering her baby by leaving it out on Paddock Street in Saint John last January. Charges were laid after neighbors called the police, saying they had found the baby crying outside with no one in sight.

Judge Henrik Tonning ruling there is no evidence Shea wanted to abandon the child or that it was in any danger. Shea tells Tide News she has moved and the case has been difficult on her family.

Defence lawyer Brian Munroe tells Tide News police didn't find anything amiss at the Shea household--rather, the house was clean, fridge stocked, and the children properly dressed. Judge Henrik Tonning called it "one of those weird cases" in which circumstances result in criminal charges
 
One of Shea's four children--one of whom has autism--is already at home with her, and the other three return to her care this week.