Parents out on town, baby home alone
Adam Huening

Two parents allegedly had their priorities and themselves out of sorts when they went out drinking, got into a fight with each other and forgot they left their infant at home alone.

According to a press release from the Greensburg Police Department, Officer Bob Zapfe was on routine patrol March 2 when he observed a man and women near The Beach engaged in a fight. He stopped to break up the fight and ended up cuffing the pair.

Beth Combs, 3200 E. Longview Drive, Bloomington, was arrested on charges of public intoxication, disorderly conduct, resisting law enforcement and battery, while Jose M. Gonzalez — going by the alias Jose Escobedo — was arrested for public intoxication, disorderly conduct and battery.

The list of charges, however, didn’t stop there.

According to the GPD release, about 90 minutes later the couple told the jail staff during booking they had left their 11-week-old child unattended at Gonzalez’s residence in the 400 block of East Walnut Street.

Officers descended on the residence, forced their way inside and found the child on the parents’ bed in the empty home.

The Decatur County Department of Child Services stepped in and took custody of the child.

Both were additionally charged with neglect of a dependent, a Class D felony, which carries a sentence between one and three years. The other charges are Class B misdemeanors, which carry sentences up to six months, and Class A for resisting law enforcement, which has a sentence of up to one year.

Gonzalez was also charged with forgery after it was discovered he was using forged identification. The name was taken from someone who had immigrated legally to the area, according to a source in the Decatur County Jail. The counterfeit charge is a Class A misdemeanor.

The information in this case was delayed, according to the source, because the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department had to be called in to properly identify Gonzalez.
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