WEST NEW YORK, WEEHAKWEN, AND BEYOND – A Weehawken resident and former West New York teacher was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday after her 28-day-old daughter was found seriously injured and abandoned near Weehawken High School in June 2011.
The 38-year-old resident of Jefferson Street in Weehawken was also required to forfeit her teaching license and is banned from public employment, according to NJ.com. The woman had accumulated a 419 day jail credit since her arrest and will have 510 left to serve before being eligible for parole, the article said.
In June 2012, the woman admitted to the aggravated assault of her child, according to NJ.com. The child was allegedly thrown. The child suffered brain damage from the incident and is dealing with medical complications as a result.
The newspaper story said that Reyes was taking medication for mental health issues, but went off it while she was pregnant, thinking it would benefit the child.
According to an article run previously in the Hudson Reporter, on the morning of June 10, 2011, the seriously injured infant was found on the sidewalk in front of the high school. Police stopped the woman a few blocks away after she was observed driving erratically, after which she admitted to having abandoned the baby.
The child was treated at Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen for skull and facial fractures along with numerous cuts and bruises, after which she was airlifted to New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.
The child now lives with her father, NJ.com reported.