DESTIN, Fla. (WKRG) — The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office charged a woman from Miramar with child neglect after finding her passed out on the deck of a Destin restaurant with a 1-year-old child in her care Monday afternoon.
Deputies tried several times to wake Ariel Yvonne Hope, 27, before she finally came to enough to respond to deputies’ questions, according to the arrest report. According to the report, when asked where she was, Hope said, “Miramar.” When asked about the child, she said he was in Miramar.
“The Defendant appeared to be heavily intoxicated to the point she was unable to take of herself,” according to the report, “let alone a one-year-old infant.”
Hope was unable to stand without deputies’ help or “rationally answer questions.”
A witness to the incident in a sworn statement said she served Hope four vodka shots and gave her a cherry for the child. After Hope gave the child the cherry, the child began to choke and, according to the witness, Hope told the child to “F****** deal with it.”
After Hope fell to the ground with the child in her hands, the witness took the child and held him until deputies arrived at the restaurant.
The arrest report also said the child was “dressed in a single layer outfit” while a “cold wind” blew in 60 degree weather.