Couple face charges for leaving kids in car while attending D.C. wine tasting

WASHINGTON — A judge ordered a couple to stay away from their two young children after they left the kids alone in a car while they attended a wine tasting in D.C. over the weekend.

Christopher Daniel Lucas and Jennie Teresa Chang face criminal charges after they left a 22-month-old boy and a 2.5-year-old girl strapped in car seats while they attended a wine tasting at upscale restaurant, Ris, in Northwest D.C. Saturday.

Gwen Crump with D.C. Metropolitan Police Department says police received a call around 5:40 p.m.  Saturday from someone who spotted the kids in the car in the 1100 block of 23rd Street NW.

A police report says that both kids were wearing coats, but neither had gloves or a hat. Also, the younger child did not have shoes or socks.

Police say the girl was “hysterically crying.”

It was 35 degrees outside — not including wind chill — when the children were found in the car, and police said the doors were locked and the windows were rolled up. The children were in good health, police said, and turned over to D.C. Child and Family Services.

Lucas told police that they left an iPhone in the car and were monitoring the children through an open connection to Chang’s phone. Police said the phone line had been open just short of an hour when officers arrived and got the children out of the gray Volvo station wagon.

“I left to go inside the restaurant, but I was watching them,” the police report says Lucas told officers on the scene.

Police arrested 41-year-old Lucas and 46-year-old Chang and charged them with two counts of attempted second-degree cruelty to children. The pair spent Saturday and Sunday in jail before their initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court Monday afternoon.

Lucas and Chang identified themselves as the parents of the two children.

A D.C. Superior Court judge ordered Lucas and Chang released pending a hearing Feb. 18. The judge ordered them to stay away from the toddlers.

WTOP’s Nick Iannelli contributed to this report.

Sarah Beth Hensley

Sarah Beth Hensley is the Digital News Director at WTOP. She has worked several different roles since she began with WTOP in 2013 and has contributed to award-winning stories and coverage on the website.

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