ORLANDO, Fla. -- A central Florida father is accused of leaving his 1-year-old child in a hot car while he went with his three other children to a Chuck E. Cheese's.The four children had been in the custody of child welfare officials until a judge granted custody to their mother Monday.Meanwhile, Cosimo Capitiano is facing child neglect charges. His lawyer said it was an accident and plans to file a written plea of not guilty.
Capitiano, 40, told authorities he forgot about the girl when he and his other children went inside Sunday afternoon. Temperatures nearly reached 100 degrees.Firefighters arrived and broke a window of the car to get to the sweating baby.Authorities said the child was left in the car for at least 10 minutes. She was not seriously injured.It's a crime in Florida to leave a child younger than 6 alone in a car for more than 15 minutes, but this was the third case of it happening in the Orlando area in less than a week.Last Wednesday, Capricia Andre was arrested for allegedly leaving her young child inside of a hot car for at least 15 minutes while she was inside shopping at the Salvation Army Thrift Store located on Colonial Drive.And last week, Angel Corcino was taken into custody after deputies said they found his 8-year-old son sitting in a hot car with the windows closed.Corcino was shopping in Wal-Mart for at least 15 minutes before someone helped his son out of the car.Captitanio was charged with child neglect.The children found locked in the cars did not suffer permanent injury from the heat.