Sarasota Woman Charged with Child Neglect

Lynzee Callaghan Hale, 30, 1700 block of Redwood Street Sarasota was charged with child neglect without great bodily harm after she allegedly left the victim alone for an extended period of time and failed to provide child appropriate living conditions, according to the report.

A neighbor called the sheriff’s office after he said he saw the baby in the yard and street alone twice in one day. The neighbor told authorities he left the child on the lanai the first time because no one answered the door when he knocked. When child just went back out in the yard, he called 911.

Callaghan Hale said she had only left the child alone for about five minutes to use the neighbor’s phone, and that the baby was sleeping in his playpen when she left, the report said.

Deputies inspected the home and found very little food and no working bath area. The glass door in the back was ajar and could not be secured, which gave the child access to a patio with an uncovered in-ground pool that the child could have fallen in.

There was also a sheet hanging from another doorway that lead to an unfinished room containing debris and garbage as well as an uncovered carpet tack strip on the floor. The mother told the deputy that the child “knew not to go in there,” according to the report. 

Callaghan Hale said she was currently involved in another Department of Children and Family Services investigation that began a few weeks ago when the she left the child unattended at the SPARCC shelter while using the bathroom.

Callaghan Hale was taken to Sarasota County Jail where she is being held without bond. The child was taken into the custody of a relative.