Charges Dropped for Mother's Boyfriend in Roadside Baby Case

Prosecutors have dropped assault charges against the boyfriend of a Maryland woman charged with leaving her weeks-old daughter on the side of a road.

The infant girl was found on the side of a road in Pasadena late on the Fourth of July.

Police believe her mother, 26-year-old Sandra McClary, of Baltimore, took the baby out of her car and left her in a car seat in the 900 block of Druid Hill Avenue shortly before midnight that night.

On Thursday, Anne Arundel County prosecutors dropped second-degree assault charges against McClary's boyfriend, Cordell Lee Hall, The Capital reported.

According to charging documents, McClary told investigators that Hall pushed her when she got lost on the way to a party July 4. After an argument, McClary said she drove off without Hall and the six-week-old baby, who was found an hour later by a bishop.

McClary called police at about 10 a.m. the following morning, saying the baby was hers and claiming that the baby's father was supposed to have the child. But police say they traced her movements after tracking a part of a car's license plate spotted in the area where the child was found.

Prosecutors say they dropped Hall's charges because McClary, invoking the Fifth Amendment, wouldn't testify and no one else can corroborate her account.

Her public defender advised her not to testify in the case against Hall, The Capital reported.

McClary is facing charges of child neglect and reckless endangerment.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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