Sharon Otterman and Andrea Salcedo

Prosecutors said in court that their investigation into the children’s deaths was not complete, raising the possibility that the charges against the man, Juan Rodriguez, could be reduced or dropped.

Rodriguez, 39, who left his twins in his hot car while he went to work at a Bronx hospital last week, was charged Saturday with two counts each of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of a child. Rodriguez has told police it was a tragic mistake.

“I assumed I had dropped them off at day care before I went to work,” he said, according to court documents. “I blanked out. My babies are dead.”

The initial charges were based on a sworn complaint from a police officer. The Bronx district attorney, Darcel Clark, must present evidence to a grand jury and persuade the jurors to approve an indictment before Rodriguez could be prosecuted for manslaughter.

Under normal circumstances, Rodriguez would have been informed at his court appearance Thursday of the grand jury’s findings, but that decision has been delayed because of the investigation, prosecutors said.

Rodriguez, a social worker, appeared somber and composed as he arrived in court with his wife, Marissa, who has said she will stand by him, and his three older children. He waived his right to a speedy trial, giving Clark more time to decide whether to present evidence to a grand jury. The judge said he should return to court Aug. 27.

Outside the courthouse after his appearance, Rodriguez held his 4-year-old as his wife clutched his arm in anguish and his two older children stood by their side. He declined to speak as his lawyer, Joey Jackson, addressed reporters.

“He has nothing at all to harbor and hide, other than to feel misery and sorrow about what happened,” Jackson said. He called on the district attorney to do “what we believe is the right thing, and that is, to dismiss these charges.”

Rodriguez left his house in New City, New York, on Friday morning with his three youngest children in his Honda Accord sedan, he told police. He dropped his 4-year-old son at day care, then got back in the car to drive the twins to a different day care center.

Somewhere along the way, he said, he forgot the babies were with him. Instead, he drove straight to a veterans’ hospital in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, where he works as social worker and parked in a sunny parking lot.

The temperature outside reached 86 degrees. When he returned to the car at 4 p.m., the babies were dead. Rodriguez did not initially notice. Two blocks from work, a passerby spotted him as he got out of the car, screaming. He had seen their bodies.

Neighbors and relatives, and Rodriguez’s wife, have described him as a doting parent; he is the father of five, including two children from a previous marriage. A GoFundMe campaign in support of family had raised $88,000 by Thursday.

“Though I am hurting more than I ever imagined possible, I still love my husband,” Marissa Rodriguez, his wife, said in a statement Sunday. “This was a horrific accident, and I need him by my side to go through this together.”

Funeral services for the twins are scheduled for Friday.

It may seem counterintuitive that an otherwise attentive parent would forget their young children in a hot car, but national statistics show that hundreds of children have died after being forgotten in cars over the past decade. Memory experts have said that just as a person can forget to go to the grocery store on the way home, so, too, can a parent forget a slumbering child in the back seat.

Last year alone, 52 children died of heatstroke in hot cars nationwide.

How prosecutors handle such cases can vary widely. Nationally, about 43% of caregivers who said they forgot their children in hot cars, causing their deaths, have faced criminal charges since 1990, according to KidsAndCars.org, an organization that tracks such incidents.

When a parent purposely leaves a child in a car — such as to run an errand — and the child dies, criminal charges are far more likely. Caregivers have been charged in two-thirds of such cases, the organization’s analysis shows.

Rear-facing car seats, recommended for infant safety, have exacerbated the problem by keeping children out of view. Child safety organizations recommend that parents take steps to remind themselves to check for their children.

Federal legislation is also under consideration that would require car manufacturers to install a warning light to remind people to check the back seat.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/nyregion/twins-dead-car.html" id="e2ff7bf1-aa1d-3cc1-ab63-aeec2df647e3">The New York Times</a>.

Indictment Delayed for Father Who Left Twins in Hot Car

NEW YORK — The Bronx district attorney’s office said Thursday that it had not yet presented evidence to a grand jury in the case of a Rockland County father who left his year-old twins in his car for eight hours, causing them to die of heatstroke.

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Sharon Otterman and Andrea Salcedo

Articles written by the author

Indictment Delayed for Father Who Left Twins in Hot Car