HONOLULU (AP) — A 22-year-old woman who tried to give her newborn to authorities by pretending to find the baby on a Hawaii beach kept her pregnancy a secret because she didn’t want to disappoint her family, her attorney said.
HONOLULU (AP) — A 22-year-old woman who tried to give her newborn to authorities by pretending to find the baby on a Hawaii beach kept her pregnancy a secret because she didn’t want to disappoint her family, her attorney said.
Keala Simeona was sentenced Thursday for filing a false police report. She will have the opportunity to keep the misdemeanor off her record if she stays out of trouble for a year, defense attorney Franklin Don Pacarro Jr. said. Her sentence includes paying $55 to a criminal compensation fund and a $75 probation services fee, 25 hours of community service and continued counseling.
Simeona reported finding an infant girl on east Honolulu’s Sandy Beach in April and took the baby to the hospital, police said.
Simeona told police she was parked at the beach late at night when she heard several people screaming. After the screaming stopped, she said, she walked toward the ocean and found the naked newborn and took her to a hospital.
Police later determined Simeona is the mother and arrested her. She was released on $250 bail.
The full-term, 8-pound newborn was “abandoned immediately after birth,” state Department of Human Services Director Patricia McManaman said at the time.
In November, Simeona pleaded no contest to filing a false police report.