Couple charged after leaving kids at home to take mother to work; she says busted tire and phone were to blame

Tyler J. Davis | The Des Moines Register

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Princess Brown hopes she doesn't have to wait a month to see her daughters.

But that's what the 24-year-old mother of two is bracing for. Brown, charged with misdemeanor child endangerment, said a juvenile court hearing regarding the care of her 8- and 3-year-old is scheduled for Dec. 30. Brown and her boyfriend were arrested and barred from contacting the girls after they left the children home alone in their West Des Moines apartment while Brown was getting a ride to work.

“Right now I’m not able to see them. It hurts a lot. I miss my kids, especially my (younger) baby who doesn’t know what’s going on," Brown said Nov. 22. "It’s always me and her ... I don't know what’s going on, what she’s thinking.”

Theodrick Wynter, Brown's boyfriend, took Brown to work at about 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14. The couple said the girls were sleeping in the apartment in the 4200 block of Van Buren Street, so they decided to make the trip without them. Brown, who moved to the metro area from Maryland about a year ago, works at a West Des Moines rehabilitation clinic less than 2 miles from her home.

But as Wynter tried to return to the residence, his tire burst, he told police. Brown's phone had broken two days earlier, so he could not let her know his situation.

The older daughter, meanwhile, called police after Wynter hadn't returned home for an hour.

“He couldn’t call me for me to call around so we can see if anybody (could) come home to the kids," Brown said. "About 11-ish, 11:30, my brother had given him a call and he told my brother what happened and my brother had came and met him minutes later."

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Wynter, a Connecticut man who's lived in Iowa two years, then went to the apartment. He found no children, but did find contact information for the West Des Moines Police Department and child services.

West Des Moines police Sgt. Jake Rolph said investigators deemed the kids could not care for themselves.

"Once the officers got there, they realized what was going on," Rolph said Friday. "They called DHS to let them know what's going on and that the officers were gonna remove the children."

Brown said her daughters are rarely left by themselves. They have a regular babysitter, whom they are staying with as the cases progress, and Wynter watches them whenever he's not working at his job at a Des Moines logistics company.

A no-contact order was filed last week preventing Brown from seeing her girls, court records show.

"There wasn't an immediate threat or immediate danger other than they were home by themselves and can't really care for themselves," Rolph said.

What happened after the children were removed

After learning the kids were gone, a "devastated" Wynter drove to his girlfriend's workplace, he said. The pair contacted West Des Moines police after 1 a.m. Nov. 15 and learned the children were taken to a youth shelter in Des Moines.

Brown went to the shelter, but was not allowed to take the girls home. The next day, a Department of Human Services officer told her a judge ordered the kids to stay elsewhere for the time being, Brown said. But she was never told she'd be facing criminal charges.

The children were released to a babysitter and Brown was able to visit them, but she could not stay overnight with them or take them anywhere.

Brown said she spent several hours each day over the weekend cooking for and hanging out with her daughters. When she got off work Monday, Nov. 18, she planned to return to the babysitter's house but stopped at home. While getting ready to leave, she heard a knock at the door.

Police asked to come in but didn't give a reason, she said.

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"I said, 'Yeah, sure' because in my mind I had not committed any crime," Brown said. "They asked for Theo and I said, 'He’s not here, he’s at work' ... so they asked to search the house and I told them 'Sure' and they searched everywhere.

"And I was like, 'Can you guys tell me now what’s going on?' and they were like, 'Well we do have a warrant for your arrest.'”

She said she was surprised, but complied when officers took her into custody. Wynter said after he got off at work about 4 p.m. that day he was called by Brown, then police. Wynter headed to West Des Moines' police station and was also taken to the Polk County Jail.

The two were released the next day.

What happens next

On Nov. 21 — a week after the incident and three days after the arrests — Brown learned in court that she and one of her girls needed to attend therapy to be reunited, she said. She also learned that the next hearing in the case would be the day before New Year's Eve. She said she is going to submit a letter to try to expedite that process.

The couple said Wynter cares for the children as if they are his own. People make mistakes, Brown said, but she never tried to put her kids in harm's way.

"My kids have a babysitter that they go to on a regular basis but being that Theo was home, that’s why they didn’t go there that night," Brown said. “It hurts because it’s putting my job, my reputation (in peril) ... It’s too much for me. It’s hard.”

Police say child endangerment cases can be tough to assess, but leaving young children alone can have negative consequences. Rolph said some questions an investigator may ask are: Can the child feed themselves? Can the child use the bathroom alone? Can the child call for help if needed?

"There is no black and white. There is no law that says at this age they can take care of themselves," Rolph said. "It's really a parenting issue and depends on the maturity of the child. I know 10-year-olds who can take care of themselves and I know 10-year-olds who cannot."

He said the delay in charges was just a result of investigators being thorough. The county attorney and DHS weighed in as well.

Follow the Register on Facebook and Twitter for more news. Tyler Davis can be contacted at tjdavis@dmreg.com or on Twitter @TDavisDMR.

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