Cab Driver, Girlfriend Arraigned In Abandoned Baby Case
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A livery cab driver and his girlfriend face charges that could earn them each a year in jail following a bold scheme to abandon the woman’s 6-month-old niece, prosecutors said yesterday.
The driver, Klever Sailema, who had been hailed as a hero after he took the baby to a firehouse and told authorities an unknown man had left her in his car and disappeared, was arraigned in Queens criminal court late Saturday on charges of falsely reporting an incident and criminal facilitation, prosecutors said. His girlfriend, Maria Siavichay, was arraigned on a charge of criminal facilitation. A criminal court judge, William Harrington, released Mr. Sailema, 44, and Ms. Siavichay, 21, without bail and ordered them to appear in court April 7.
The baby’s 14-year-old mother probably would not be charged because of her age, police said. The baby’s father, identified by police only as Ms. Siavichay’s 27-year-old brother, was being sought.
Mr. Sailema and Ms. Siavichay’s lawyer, Kevin Faga, said the driver had “acted responsibly for the welfare of the child.”
“These are good people, and this was a case of people doing their best to do what they thought was right for the child,” he said. “Unfortunately, what they thought was right appears to be contrary to what the law allows.”
A state safe haven law allows parents unable to care for newborns to leave them anonymously at hospitals, police stations, or firehouses without risking prosecution, but it applies only to children up to 5-days-old.
Mr. Sailema was briefly the toast of the city after he delivered the baby to a Queens firehouse on Thursday. A day later, under questioning by detectives, he admitted he knew the mother’s family in the Bronx and had participated in the plan to abandon the baby.
Police said Mr. Sailema became involved because he was dating Ms. Siavichay. Investigators believe she persuaded him to take part.
Police didn’t provide all details of the case, but a family friend, Stuart Caban, told reporters he had taken the baby’s mother to police late Friday after he found her sobbing over a picture of her child in a newspaper.
“She was depressed, scared, crying,” he said. “She loved her daughter. She wanted to be with her.”
The baby has been placed in a foster home.
