Jersey City Heights mom comes home intoxicated from watching football game at bar to learn she's arrested on child endangerment charge after 2-year-old girl is found home alone

Tuesday, November 16, 2010
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

A Jersey City woman accused of leaving her 2-year-old daughter home alone was arrested Sunday after she returned home intoxicated with a man she had been watching a football game with at a local bar, police said.

At about 7:30 p.m. Edith Burke, 39, of Zabriskie Street, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, reports said.

When Burke encountered cops outside her Heights building Sunday night, she said, "That's my daughter up there," according to reports.

The officers told Burke that her daughter had been taken to Christ Hospital after she was found alone at around 1:30 p.m., reports said, noting that doctors found the girl to be in good health.

Standing on the front stoop of her home last night, Burke blamed her 16-year-old daughter for abandoning the tot.

"I left her with my 16-year-old daughter and she left," Burke said.

"I don't know how this is going to turn out," she added tearfully as she was comforted by her landlord. "I got a phone call and I came home."

Police were called to Burke's apartment Sunday by the landlord, who said tenants told her there was a baby crying in Burke's apartment and no one answered the door, reports said.

The landlord said she knocked on the door as well and heard the baby screaming and running around, reports said.

Officers entered the apartment and found the toddler crying in the kitchen and wearing a soiled diaper, reports said, adding that the home was strewn with clothing and trash.

The child ran into the arms of the 69-year-old landlord, who helped dress her and accompanied her to the hospital, where she changed and cleaned the girl, reports said.

Detectives reached out to the child's father but learned he was in jail, reports said, adding that they contacted many of Burke's friends and family members but could not find the mother or reach her by phone.

After Burke showed up at her home, the 46-year-old man she had been drinking with told police they had been at a Manhattan Avenue bar, reports said.

He told the officers they returned to her residence after she got a call at the bar saying her daughter was found home alone, reports said, adding that relatives on Sherman Avenue said they would take custody of the toddler.

Burke's friend told police he picked up the mother about noon and Burke said the toddler was left in the care of her 16-year-old.

Police could not find the teen, but were able to communicate with her using text messages, reports said.

The 16-year-old told police that Burke had kicked her out of the apartment a week earlier and she had only dropped by to pick up some of her belongings, reports said.