Orange Park mom charged with leaving 2-year-old in car

For the third time in under a week, a First Coast child is left unattended in a hot car.

31-year-old Jessica Burroughs, of Orange Park, has been charged with a misdemeanor count of leaving an unattended child in a motor vehicle for more than 15 minutes.  Clay deputies responded to a home on Gane Avenue to find a 2-year-old boy in a Ford Explorer with the windows rolled down but the car not on.  Deputies say the child was sweating, but responsive. It was 90 degrees outside, according to the arrest report we’ve obtained.

Investigators say two people selling chocolates and candles for a youth program approached Burroughs in her home but she turned them away. When they were walking down the driveway, they saw the boy and told the people next door. Those neighbors called police. One of them told investigators he had been “in the front yard the entire time and that the child was left along in the car for approximately 30 minutes,” according to the report.

Burroughs told deputies she ran in to her home to use the bathroom and called people down the street to watch the child while she was inside. CCSO says nobody was visibly watching the child when they arrived on scene, but three people claim to have been watching from their driveways down the street.

The Department of Children and Families is conducting an investigation, but the child was left in Burroughs custody. CCSO says because of the circumstances around the case- that the windows were rolled down and others were watching the car- a felony charge was not warranted.  Burroughs has been served a notice to appear.