A Florida mother was arrested after allegedly leaving her four young children — including a 2-month-old infant and a 2-year-old — home alone as she took a three-night cruise to the Bahamas, visibly shocking the judge hearing the case.
“Who leaves four little kids alone to go on a cruise?” Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer incredulously asked Nathalie Belizaire, 29, as she appeared in court with her lawyer by video call Tuesday.
“The poor kids were home alone!” she exclaimed, Local 10 reports.
Belizaire was charged with four counts of child neglect after she flitted off for a three-night cruise on Carnival Cruise Line’s Carnival Conquest, leaving the children to fend for themselves in her North Miami Beach residence, according to an arrest affidavit.
Lether Bazile, the father of the 2-month-old, told cops Belizaire said she had planned to leave the kids with their great-grandmother. But when he stopped by her place Sept. 26 — a day after the ship set sail — he heard the chatter of kids’ voices and saw the TV on through the blinds.
He called police, who found the children hiding in the bathroom without an adult in sight. Their grandmother, Denise Wilkes, told officers Belizaire said she was going to drop the kids off but never arrived.
Belizaire’s brother, Steven Borgella, told police his sister had texted him the same day asking him to check in on the children.
She was arrested as she disembarked the vessel when it arrived at the port in Miami Sept. 28 and declined to speak to officers, the documents say, a detail that didn’t escape Judge Glazer’s attention when Belizaire’s lawyer said her leaving the kids to go on a cruise was only “only an allegation,” which she denies.
“They arrested her disembarking from the cruise ship!” Glazer shot back
“You cannot make this up!” she added. “We are just grateful nothing worse happened to those kids.”
The ages of the other two children were not immediately known.
Belizaire was booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center Monday afternoon on four felony counts of child neglect without great bodily harm.
She was ordered to stay away from the children and her bond was set at $10,000, according to court records.
The cruise episode was not her first brush with law enforcement.
She was arrested and charged with aggravated battery in January 2025 after she allegedly pepper-sprayed a neighbor in the face, believing she was harassing her daughter.
Read the full article here