A man faces three charges, including endangerment of a child, after police found him Monday night intoxicated lying in a dark area along a highway with a baby. Orange Patrol Officer M.T. Roush reported he found the man lying on his back with his legs in drainage ditch with two feet of water in it. The 1-year-old baby wearing a T-shirt and diaper was on top of the man’s chest.
Police called state Child Protective Services and the child was allowed to go with a relative.
A motorist called police 9-1-1 at 10:47 p.m. Monday. The caller said the man was at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive at Allie Payne Road and the man tried to get in the caller’s pickup truck. The area has a speed of 75 miles per hour.
Officer Roush said the spot where the man was lying had grass two to three feet tall. The area had no sidewalks or lights.
Police reported the man appeared to be intoxicated on an unknown substance. When a woman officer tried to take the baby, the man clung to the child, “placing the baby at risk,” Officer Roush said.
After police took the baby, the man continued to push and pull against officers trying to handcuff him. He was taken to the local emergency room to be examined, but would not cooperate. Officer Roush said the man then tried resisting getting back into the patrol car. Other officers had to shackle the man at the legs to take him to the Orange County Jail.
Police said the man was arrested for misdemeanor public intoxication, misdemeanor resisting arrest and endangerment of a child, a state jail felony. As of Tuesday afternoon, formal charges had not been filed.
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