Mother of abandoned infant facing charges

Carolyn Hileman - The Voice* | April 29, 2008

Woman held on $500K bail
Wendy Leung, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 04/28/2008 11:59:19 PM PDT

RANCHO CUCAMONGA - A Rancho Cucamonga woman faces charges of attempted murder and assault of a child after her newborn baby, believed to be less than 12 hours old, was found in a trash bin Sunday.
Amber Jimenez, 20, was arrested and booked into the West Valley Detention Center on Sunday evening and held on $500,000 bail. The baby girl was extremely hypothermic when discovered, but according to San Bernardino County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jodi Miller, she was doing well Monday at San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland.

The sheriff’s and fire departments were notified of the abandoned infant after a homeless man discovered her while looking for aluminum cans. Jimenez was later arrested at an apartment near the trash bin on the 8200 block of Vineyard Avenue.

Jimenez is scheduled to appear in court this afternoon.

Had she surrendered the baby to a local hospital or fire station, Jimenez’s fate would have been different.

The Safe Surrender law, which allows a parent to surrender an unwanted baby within 72 hours of birth to a hospital or fire station without any criminal liability, was enacted in 2001. As of December 2007, 220 newborns have been surrendered in California, 21 of those in San Bernardino County, according to the state Department of Social Services.