Sentenced: Woman Given Probation For Abandoning 5 Children Caught With Meth

[Sugar Cookie]

Irene Lira, a California resident, has pleaded no contest to one count of committing child abuse intentionally.

This case began when a deputy with the York County Sheriff’s Department saw a vehicle speeding on Interstate 80 and he conducted a traffic stop. In the affidavit, the deputy says the driver (Michael Fortner) did not have any form of identification and indicated he believed his license may have been suspended. The vehicle, a Nissan sedan, was a rental car yet the deputy said the driver could not provide any rental agreement.

The deputy says he asked the driver to step out of the vehicle – and when he opened the driver’s door of the vehicle, he saw a small syringe lying beside the driver’s seat on the floor. The deputy said that based on his training and experience, “this syringe is used for injecting methamphetamine.”

Fortner was then arrested.

Lira, the front seat passenger, was also taken into custody and a search of her purse resulted in the discovery of two small blue bags with a white crystal-like residue inside. The deputy said the substance field tested positive as methamphetamine. He added, in the court affidavit, that he also found in her purse a homemade pipe that is used for the ingestion of methamphetamine.

The remaining two passengers – Pablo Recio and Kristin Learned – were also taken into custody and transported to the York County Jail.

Two days later, the York Police Department was dispatched to a hotel in York on the report that five children – ages 17, 16, 12, seven and three months – had been left abandoned and their parents had been arrested.

The police officer says in his separate affidavit that “upon arrival at the room, I had contact with the children and they told me they had been traveling from California to Minnesota to attend a wedding and their parents had been arrested and that they had been traveling with four adults – Lira, Fortner, Recio and Learned.”

The police officer determined that Lira is the mother of two of the children and grandmother of two of the children; Recio is the father of two of the children; and Learned is the mother of one of the children.

“The children told me that they had been asleep at an unidentified gas station when (one of the children) was called by her mother (Lira) who said they were being pulled over. She later called them from jail to tell them they were being arrested. At this time, the children had been asleep at an unknown gas station.” He added that all this had happened to the children, at the gas station, in the middle of the night.

The police officer says a staff member at the hotel had explained that the children went to that lodging property and she received a call from a woman who asked her to give the children a hotel room and another woman would call and pay for it. The hotel worker said she never received a call to pay for the room, “but she decided that it was in the best interest of the children that she would put them up in a room for their own wellbeing. She said she put the children in a room for one night.

“It is unknown where the children were or what they were doing from the time the adults were arrested and the time they were booked into the hotel.”
The officer says in his affidavit that the older children were caring for the younger children and had been able to get them some food.

The police officer says that when he arrived at the hotel room to talk with the children, “there were dog feces and urine throughout the hotel room,” due to six dogs also being left with the children.

The police officer spoke with the sheriff’s deputy who had earlier arrested the four adults, “and he told me that upon being pulled over, all four adults in the vehicle appeared to be under the influence of some substance and none of the adults told him about the children or their lack of adult supervision.”

During Tuesday’s factual basis proceedings, the prosecution told the court, “The defendant made numerous calls to the children from the jail, never offering assistance or instruction to contact authorities or notify law enforcement that the children were in danger, even at the begging and behest of her own daughter. The defendant can be heard speaking with total disregard for her daughter’s pleading for help and encouraging the children to attempt to drive to California on no gas and merely $20, risking abandonment on the interstate – all to satisfy her desire for her daughter to return with a relative to bond her out.

Woman pleads no contest to child abuse after abandoning five children at interchange

YORK – A plea agreement has been reached in a case involving four adults who abandoned five juveniles and six dogs at a gas station in York and then were

yorknewstimes.com

 

[Blizzard]

“The defendant made numerous calls to the children from the jail

The defendant can be heard speaking with total disregard for her daughter’s pleading for help and encouraging the children to attempt to drive to California on no gas and merely $20

Woman clearly had a life to live, a life involving going places and doing drugs and wtf-ever, and these kids were just along for the ride. Except when they weren't along for the ride and were instead left at an unidentified gas station. Eh.....

 

[BBBLUE77]

MOTY material there!

 

[McDanel]

4 adults, 5 kids, and 6 dogs driving across country in one vehicle. I'll take the trunk, thanks.

 

[cubby]

Sounds like my aunt, she never went anywhere without half the adult neighbors, all the neighbors children, all of my cousins, and all of their dogs. You never knew who was gonna show up with her at any family function and always late, like hours late and be surprised we started with out her. We always said they traveled as a pack, like a pack of wild dogs mostly.

 

[RavagesTheCabbages]

4 adults, 5 kids, and 6 dogs driving across country in one vehicle. I'll take the trunk, thanks.

Right? The kids and the dogs were probably in the trunk. No Nissan sedan I am aware of can fit that many people much less 6 dogs on top of the humans. Unless of course it was a clown car, clown cars can do that

 

[Metalfan]

Sounds like my aunt, she never went anywhere without half the adult neighbors, all the neighbors children, all of my cousins, and all of their dogs. You never knew who was gonna show up with her at any family function and always late, like hours late and be surprised we started with out her. We always said they traveled as a pack, like a pack of wild dogs mostly.

I'm actually not joking about this but I have an aunt that was very similar in that respect, she would show up to FAMILY reunions with complete strangers in tow.
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How did they all fit?

 

[runninfawn]

Well seems to me that there must have been 2 vehicles based on the mother/grandmother was trying to talk the kids into driving to get her money for bail. When the 4 adults got arrested they weren't at the gas station but on the interstate driving so that car must have been impounded at least that is the way i read it. One car out of gas and not enough money to fill the bigger vehicle so all supposedly adults had to go get some money somewhere and left the kids behind, nice bunch of no brains people but yea had to also do their drugs i guess so 4 kids left to be supervised by a 17 year old at night with only 20 dollars to feed 4 kids and one baby, F*&*ing people, way to go. and 3 supposedly parents thought that was a good idea?

 

[Muriel Schwenck]

What @runninfawn said. The children and dogs must have been sleeping in a car at the gas station. Nebraska winter. Brrrrr!

 

[Sejanus]

Worthless junkie filth.
Re-home the kids.
Cage the adults

 

[McDanel]

Well seems to me that there must have been 2 vehicles based on the mother/grandmother was trying to talk the kids into driving to get her money for bail. When the 4 adults got arrested they weren't at the gas station but on the interstate driving so that car must have been impounded at least that is the way i read it. One car out of gas and not enough money to fill the bigger vehicle so all supposedly adults had to go get some money somewhere and left the kids behind, nice bunch of no brains people but yea had to also do their drugs i guess so 4 kids left to be supervised by a 17 year old at night with only 20 dollars to feed 4 kids and one baby, F*&*ing people, way to go. and 3 supposedly parents thought that was a good idea?

Only good thing, 6 dogs would generate a lot of heat.

 

[runninfawn]

Only good thing, 6 dogs would generate a lot of heat.

don't know temp in nebraska but wow canada it sure is cold this time of year not fit for even dogs to sleep in cars or be left in car for more than maybe 10 minutes top cuz inside gets freezing cold fast

 

[Sugar Cookie]

A 44-year-old woman, who (along with three other adults) left five kids and six dogs at the York interchange and was later found in possession of meth during a traffic stop on Interstate 80, has been sentenced to prison.
Irene Lira appeared in York County District Court this week, for re-sentencing, regarding one count of child abuse, a Class 3A felony. She was earlier sentenced to probation but the probation was revoked due to her subsequent drug-related charges.

During earlier factual basis proceedings, the prosecution told the court, “The defendant made numerous calls to the children from the jail, never offering assistance or instruction to contact authorities or notify law enforcement that the children were in danger, even at the begging and behest of her own daughter. The defendant can be heard speaking with total disregard for her daughter’s pleading for help and encouraging the children to attempt to drive to California on no gas and merely $20, risking abandonment on the interstate – all to satisfy her desire for her daughter to return with a relative to bond her out.”

Since she has been in York County, she’s been accused of sneaking alcohol to one of the minor children who was in foster care, as well as third degree assault regarding a fight between her and the other three adults involved in this situation, in Waco. She has also been charged with drug possession.

Lira’s criminal history includes robbery, numerous paraphernalia possessions, transportation of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance, alien smuggling and burglary.

This week, she was sentenced to prison for one year to be followed by 18 months of post-release supervision.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Those poor kids will know nothing but a life of disappointment with a mother like this.

 

[Satanica]

Absolute trash.

 

[timeywimeymommywommy]

I'm actually not joking about this but I have an aunt that was very similar in that respect, she would show up to FAMILY reunions with complete strangers in tow.
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How did they all fit?

How did we ALL have that one Aunt?! I feel so seen. We'd lie to her about when we were starting just hoping she'd get there only roughly an hour late or so, whoever was coming with her