An Ohio woman was sentenced Wednesday in Rocky River Municipal Court after being found guilty of leaving three kids at home while she took a trip to Florida. Judge Joseph Burke sentenced Dominique Knowles to five years of probation, 360 days of house arrest, plus fines and mandatory counseling, WKYC reported.
Knowles was convicted of two misdemeanor counts of endangering children during a bench trial. The Westlake woman faced six months in jail and a maximum penalty of $1,000 in fines for each of the two misdemeanor counts.
Fox8 earlier reported that Knowles chose to have a judge rather than a jury hear her case.
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Judge Burke, who found her guilty of both counts, wrote in his entry, “The issue here was not whether the two 7-year-olds were fed or clothed while their mother was in Florida. Rather, the issue is whether leaving two 7-year-old minors with their 10-year-old sister while the defendant travelled to Miami, Florida, for three days created a substantial risk of harm to them without adult supervision. The answer is a resounding yes.”
On February 22, a special education teacher at Westlake City Schools called the police after one of her students, a 7-year-old girl, claimed that she was at home alone with her twin sister and 10-year-old sister, and that their mother, Knowles, who was in Texas, checked on them via video and brought them food through deliveries.
Police discovered that the three minors were actually alone at Knowles’ apartment on Detroit Road. The flat was described as being “in shambles,” with “furniture stacked up in a corner, storage boxes stacked in another corner, and the apartment itself smelled of old food and body odor,” in addition to “clothing, food, trash, and an unknown liquid covering the floor.”
Despite the children’s claims that their mother had not abandoned them, investigators remained skeptical.
Later, when the police located the girls’ grandmother, she came to the house to look after the kids. She also informed the police that Knowles was in the state and that she was carrying her baby boy.
Four days after the incident, Knowles told police that she trusted her 10-year-old daughter could look after the other kids while she was out. Although Knowles denied leaving Ohio, she was unwilling to answer any inquiries about her whereabouts from February 21 to 25.
Police monitored Knowles’ phone and found evidence that she had visited Miami, Florida, the day before they performed the welfare check, according to Michael Maloney, director of Westlake Law.
Maloney said Knowles told the police that she was going to Miami to help her friend who was having liposuction surgery.
