A South Florida mother faced a judge on Saturday after her 6-year-old son was allegedly badly beaten by her boyfriend last month.
Cythnia Hernandez’s attorney alleged that the state wanted to hold her client behind bars so she could be a witness against the man accused of beating her son. Though the bond was set at more than $10,000, the judge made her own conclusions.
Hernandez, 32, who turned herself in to face several charges, including child neglect, failure to report child neglect and providing a false statement to law enforcement, appeared in bond court on Saturday and had an attorney to speak on her behalf.
“In Ms. Hernandez’s case, the accusations are not that she directly failed or admitted to providing a child with care — it is actually her partner, who was living at the time that was the one who accused and was arrested for the alleged child neglect and child abuse,” said defense attorney Nicolas Torres.
6-year-old boy with autism in critical condition after alleged beating by mother’s boyfriend
Hernandez’s boyfriend, 34-year-old Daniel Eduardo Romero, was arrested on Jan. 11 and charged with aggravated child abuse causing great bodily harm, child neglect with great bodily harm and providing false information to law enforcement after police responded to a home on North Miami Beach regarding a report of a child in cardiac arrest.
The case gained notoriety when police released body camera video showing the 6-year-old child, wrapped in a blanket with no detectable pulse.
“This is a case, judge, where I believe that the State Attorney’s Office, after a couple of weeks, decided to charge Ms. Hernandez just so that they could use her as a state witness against the main perpetrator, who has already been arrested since the inception of the case,” Torres told the judge.
The judge found probable cause for each of the charges, setting the count one bond at $7,500, $2,500 for count two and $500 for count three. Hernandez was also instructed to stay away from her son and cannot own or carry a gun.
She is expected to be released soon, where CBS News Miami has a crew waiting outside Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center to see her walk out.
