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NEW: Mom accused of neglect after kids found alone in Lake Worth park

Palm Beach Post - 5/25/2017

May 25--LAKE WORTH -- A woman accused of child neglect told authorities she left her two children at Bryant Park while she was at work because she could not arrange child care, according to an arrest report.

When a Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy went through the woman's purse following her arrest, they found nearly $2,900, the report said.

Jennifer Rena Rosario, 31, of Royal Palm Beach is facing two counts of child neglect without great bodily harm and was released Tuesday from the Palm Beach County Jail Office after posting a $6,000 bond.

Rosario allegedly left the children in the park for at least 1 1/2 hours in 90-degree heat. The arresting deputy wrote in the report that the park, along the Intracoastal Waterway on Golfview Road south of Lake Avenue, is plagued by crime, including prostitution and drug activity.

The children are ages 3 and 11, the report said.

One of the children was found jumping from rock to rock about 20 feet from the Intracoastal sea wall. The younger child was playing alone on adult exercise machines, the report said.

The older child told the deputy he was not in school after being suspended for fighting. The child was unable to provide PBSO with his mother's last name or her phone number, the report said.

Rosario told PBSO that she worked cleaning at a motel and could not take her children to work.

Rosario insisted that she wasn't gone long and that her children were "fine" in the park despite what the deputy wrote was a "high crime area."

Following her arrest, $2,876.21 were found in Rosario's purse that "could have paid for temporary child care," the deputy wrote in the report.

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