The mother of a Northern California girl, 14, whose baby was found dead near an agricultural field, has been arrested.
Officials said the girl was abused and impregnated by her own father, who fled with her after the newborn was found dead Aug. 1 along a Monterey County road.
The teen’s mother, Ofelia Garcia Ortega, 36, was arrested by Monterey County sheriff’s detectives on Tuesday afternoon at the Salinas Superior Courthouse, the agency said in a statement.
The infant, whom law enforcement referred to as “Baby Angelita,” was found dead with signs of traumatic injury along Struve Road in Monterey County.
The teenager, who is not being named because she is a minor, was recently found in Mexico with her fugitive father, Sergio Galvez Perez, who was arrested. California authorities had in early September issued an Amber alert.
Prosecutors have said the girl is a victim of sexual assault by her biological father. On Sept. 2, he was charged with one count of lewd act upon a child, with an enhancement for inflicting “great bodily injury on the victim”; one count of incest; and one count of child abuse, according to court documents.
“The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the infant’s death also examined the conduct of Jane Doe’s mother, Ofelia Garcia Ortega,” the the Monterey County district attorney’s office said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “Investigators determined that Ortega put Jane Doe to work in agricultural fields at age 13 using falsified documentation. Ortega also allowed Jane Doe to drive without a license and allowed her to completely remain out of school for many months.”
Cmdr. Andres Rosas, a spokesperson for the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, was unable to immediately provide information about why Garcia Ortega was at the Salinas Superior Courthouse at the time of her arrest. She had previously been arrested, on Aug. 4, on suspicion of child endangerment. That same day, she posted $50,000 bail and was released, Rosas told The Times.
On Tuesday at 2:45 p.m., she was taken into custody without incident and charged with two felony counts of displaying or possessing a forged identification card; one misdemeanor count of permitting a child to suffer or be endangered; and one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, according to the statement.
Rosas said Perez and his daughter were found in Janos, a town in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua.
The girl is now in the custody of a Mexican government agency responsible for child protection, Rosas said, adding that more details would be shared later this week.
Garcia Ortega is now being held in the Monterey County Jail on $150,000 enhanced bail, which she had not posted as of Tuesday evening, Rosas said.
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