Background: News footage of Angelica Saragosa’s Feb. 21 court appearance (WITI). Inset: Angelica Saragosa (Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office).
A Wisconsin woman who allegedly assaulted her boyfriend before fleeing the scene with her two young children was charged with child abuse after making the kids spend a long night outside in the freezing cold.
Angelica Saragosa, 47, appeared in court on Feb. 21, a day after she was arrested by the Thiensville Police Department.
She was ordered to be held on $100,000 bond after prosecutors told Circuit Judge Sandy Williams that Saragosa allegedly “spent the night outside with her two children, who were poorly dressed” in reported wind chill temperatures of -19 degrees Fahrenheit. The children were hospitalized for low body temperature and other “life-threatening” conditions related to exposure to the bitter cold, authorities said.
Police stated that at about 8:30 p.m. on the night of Feb. 19, officers responded to a call placed to a home in Thiensville where a man, later identified as Saragosa’s boyfriend, claimed to have been in a physical altercation with Saragosa.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by WISN, a local ABC affiliate, the man told police that Saragosa confronted him about his ex-wife and then allegedly hit him “repeatedly in the face,” leaving him with a bloody mouth and a temporary loss of sight in one eye. By the time police arrived, Saragosa was gone, and she had allegedly taken her two children — a 5-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy — with her.
The next morning, at 6:40 a.m., a neighbor of the man called the police to report that Saragosa had knocked on her door asking for assistance. According to court filings obtained by WITI, a local Fox affiliate, Saragosa and her children were trembling from the cold after spending the night outdoors next to a furnace vent.
The criminal complaint stated that Saragosa told the neighbor that she and the kids had spent “10 hours” in the freezing cold, waiting until she could no longer hear the police who had shown up at her house. When police arrived at the neighbor’s house, they witnessed the children’s “uncontrollable trembling,” which lasted “approximately 45 minutes, despite being covered with dry, warmed blankets, warmed socks, and an electric heater being placed nearby.”
In court, prosecutor Kristian Kanekoa Lindo reportedly told the judge: “Both kids are at the hospital, still, being treated for low body temperature and carbon monoxide exposure. The boy has blistering on his feet, due to exposure to the cold.”
Saragosa was taken into custody on Feb. 20, and charged with two counts of child abuse, two counts of child neglect, misdemeanor battery, and three counts of misdemeanor bail jumping. Judge Williams ordered that she be held on $100,000 bond. Saragosa’s next court appearance is scheduled for March 13.
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