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The Danville woman who left her infant twins in her car to go shopping at the mall has taken a plea deal that would allow a misdemeanor charge to be dropped in two years.

Amanda Nejat was 46 in when she was taken into custody in February after a witness spotted the children alone and crying in Nejat’s Cadillac Escalade. Mall security held her until police arrived.

Surveillance video showed she’d been shopping for about Nordstrom for 45 minutes while the 11-week-old babies were in the car unattended at about 4 p.m. on Feb. 8, police said.

Nejat was charged with two felony counts of child endangerment — one for each of the twins — and was released on bond. In court Thursday, she entered a plea of no contest to one misdemeanor count of child endangerment, and ordered to be on good behavior for two years, when the charges would be dropped, according to Teresa Drennick, a spokeswoman for the Alameda County District Attorneys office.

Nejat is also subject to a search clause so officials can check on the welfare of the children.

In addition, Drennick said, Nejat must complete 52 counseling sessions and complete 26 parenting classes.

Nejat must also pay a $1,000 fine — and stay away from Nordstrom.

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36 Comments

  2. Well, I guess as long as she stays away from Nordstrom’s it will be okay. Having people like this allowed in their parking lot is no doubt bad for their business. How can they be expected to make a profit with all the commodition and bad publicity?

  4. She is getting off way too easy. How do they plan to enforce the couceling and the parenting classes? And I wonder where she’ll leave the kids when she attends those? And Nordstroms, that’s ridiculous!

  5. A Cadillac Escalade? That’s what happens when you connect our malls to Oakland vee-ya BART. The gangs come, mug us all, then set up a Cadillac escort service for all the welfare mom’s who want to live it up shopping at Nordstroms.

  6. First is was Mary Hayashi. Now its Amanda Nejat. If you are a woman and do the crime your sentence is “stay away from Nordstrom”.

    If you are a woman I guess this is a harsh sentence 🙂

  7. She’s a 46 year old woman! That is the last person you should give a break to. After half a century on this earth common sense should tell you not to leave babies in a car (or anywhere else) unattended.

    Sounds like her drug is shopping, some people neglect their kids for alcohol or gambling…hers is seems to be shopping…why should she get to keep her kids? Neglect is neglect no matter what your vice is.

  10. About time Pleasanton makes national news for something. It has been awhile. Too bad all they mention is that it happened in Pleasanton and not by a Danville resident. They should get some credit too!

    Judge and DA are the butt of all the jokes and the defense attorney looks like a genius.

    “It was something that the district attorney requested,” said Attorney Louis Goodman. “We were certainly agreeable to it.”

    I bet you were agreeable to it!

  11. This forum cracks me up. A white woman from Danville who drives a Cadillac Escalade is an idiot who leaves her infants locked in the vehicle while she returns items to Nordstrom’s, and yet someone links the incident to BART, gangs, and Oakland. This woman was not a “welfare mom” by any stretch. I read that she is the Program Director of the “Bay Area Surrogacy Program”. Can you believe it, she advises parents? Perhaps sleep deprivation at 46 affects one WAY more than at 26 or 36. Thank goodness she was lucky and nothing happened to those babies. I sure hope she learned her lesson. And good for that woman who called the police!

  12. Julie-
    I believe Steven was being sarcastic. We have several crazies on this board who blame everything on either BART or teacher’s unions. He was just making fun of them.

    I’m a mom of twins and there were several times when I lost it during the first year. Did I cry? yes Did I call my husband and say that I didn’t think I was going to make it through the day? yes Did I have postpartum depression? yes But I never left my kids in the car to go shopping. This is an incredibly selfish woman who definitely needs counseling.

  13. To those who think the woman got off lightly. I’m sure there will be a probation officer involved checking on the counselling and parenting classes (like they do for community service). Last thing our jails need is more people in them. The purpose is to teach this mom how to parent and not endanger her children. If she made a bad decision because she was sleep deprived and thought she’d be in to return items in “5 minutes” – this is payment enough. At least she didn’t plead not guilty and require taxpayers to pay for a court case. I pray she has learned her lesson.

  14. A mom too – do you really think it did not cost you any money already?? Lets pretend she has to pay for all of the counseling and classes she was ordered to do out of pocket…then do you think her small fine covered the costs already incurred for the attorneys, judge, cops, etc. that have already had to spend time on her? Where are her community service hours…teens get community service hours (sometimes a lot) for shoplifting a $10 item. She left babies in a car to go shopping! Face it she really did get off lightly.

  15. I sympathize entirely for the children. And perhaps the mother could benefit from some therapy work with a church organization or something.

    But the really important issue here was expressed is the just legal opinion. Namely, that we cannot have overly distraught mothers throwing negative light upon our great private sector institutions such as Nordstrom’s or Target. If they want to leave their kids in cars in Neutral public areas, that isn’t quite so bad. Doing such wouldn’t cast negative light upon institutions like Nordstroms and those who shop there. Golly sakes! We have a lot more to do to protect our private sector job creating heroes from irresponsible mothers!

  16. Nice post Mr. Mittens. You almost started to make sense there for a sentence or two, then lapsed back into your usual incredibly lame attempt at sarcasm. Keep up your therapy, your finally starting to make some strides toward appearing to be sane.

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