| POLICE NEWS | BLOG: SOUTH BAY CRIME, COURT NEWS | FACEBOOK

A Hawthorne woman allegedly texting and driving with her infant daughter in her lap through Torrance faces charges that could send her to jail for five years, prosecutors said Thursday.

Shawndeeia Joann Bowen, 29, of Hawthorne, whose case went viral on the Internet after a Daily Breeze report, appeared Thursday for arraignment in Torrance court, where prosecutors charged her with child endangerment and other offenses.

Bowen, who has six children, pleaded not guilty and was ordered to return to court on April 12. She remained in custody on more than $130,000 bail.

Police on Thursday released new information about the woman, who quickly became the poster child for Distracted Driving Awareness Month, a law enforcement campaign in April to crack down on motorists who illegally use cellphones while driving in California.

Bowen was wearing one false eyelash and pink children’s elastic underwear on her head when officers pulled her over at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday with three children in the car.

“When they stopped her, she had something on her head,” Torrance police Lt. Stephen D’anjou said. “They thought it was a hat. When they investigated further they noticed it was her children’s underwear.”

Police officers stopped Bowen shortly after a motorist called 911 to report seeing the woman texting on her cellphone against the steering wheel driving north on the San Diego (405) Freeway with an infant in her lap.

The child was still in the woman’s lap when officers pulled her Ford Taurus over at Torrance and Hawthorne boulevards.

“Her excuse was that in the area of the 91 and Compton, the 1-year-old was crying,” D’anjou said. “She pulled her up from the back to the front seat. When the officers made the stop, the baby wasn’t crying at all.”

The woman told police the 1-year-old girl had been secured in a child safety seat, but officers deemed that impossible.

The seat’s buckle was caked with chocolate that appeared to have accumulated over time, D’anjou said.

“That buckle has been inoperable for some period of time,” D’anjou said. “It never could be buckled because it had so much chocolate gunked up. It looks like caked on.”

The woman’s 4-year-old niece was sitting in the car seat in the back. Bowen’s 3-year-old daughter was sleeping across the back seat, also unsecured, police said.

Police officers called for Department of Children and Family Services officials, who took the girls into protective custody.

“She was crying, `Please don’t do this,’ begging the officers not to take her babies,” D’anjou said.

Records showed Bowen was on probation from a previous conviction for child abuse.

Her driving record includes two accidents and previous violations for having a defective windshield or rear window, having no insurance, failing to use her safety belts, failing to use child restraints, failing to stop behind a limit line, making an illegal turn against a posted sign, driving with defective lighting equipment, driving with a missing license plate and driving with a suspended license.

Department of Motor Vehicle records showed she repeatedly failed to go to court.

The Torrance City Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday charged Bowen with three misdemeanor counts of child endangerment, two counts of violating a court order, and single counts of driving without a valid license and driving with a suspended license.

She also was hit with three infractions: two for driving with a person under 6 without a restraint, and one for driving a vehicle while using a wireless device.

D’anjou said Bowen’s arrest was reported by numerous television stations and websites, including the Huffington Post.

Her arrest has raised awareness for the nationwide problem of texting while driving, as well as seat belt use, D’Anjou said.

Police will continue to ticket motorists who text while driving or use cellphones without hands-free devices, D’anjou said.

Tickets start with $159 fines.

larry.altman@dailybreeze.com

Follow Larry Altman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/larryaltman