HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – A Hollywood man was arrested Saturday after he passed out at a cigar bar while his baby was crying in a stroller, police said.
Wallace Kahn III, 36, faces a charge of child neglect without great bodily harm.
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Hollywood police Officer Jonathan Baluja was called to the Habano Bar Cafe on South Young Circle after receiving a report of a man going in and out of consciousness while a child was unattended in a stroller, according to a police report.
When Baluja arrived, he noticed the man, later identified as Kahn, sitting in a seat outside the business. Baluja said he smelled an odor of alcohol emanating from Kahn, who had bloodshot eyes, was sweating profusely, and had a difficult time keeping his head up and his eyes open.
Baluja said he checked on the baby and noticed that the child's shirt was soaked in sweat.
A witness told Baluja that she saw Kahn arrive with the baby and sit next to her. Shortly after he sat down, she saw him tilt the seat backward, causing him to fall to the floor. She said Kahn then got up, walked over to the stroller and picked up a cup, a bottle of vodka and a bottle of orange juice.
The woman watched as Kahn filled the cup with the vodka and orange juice before he moved to another seat and passed out, Baluja wrote in the report. She said the child began to cry after Kahn fell asleep, but he didn't wake up.
An employee called police while the woman and other patrons gave the child water "because the baby seemed dehydrated," Baluja wrote.
When Baluja looked in the stroller, he noticed an empty bottle of Pinnacle vodka and a bottle of orange juice on the canopy of the stroller, but he didn't see any child care items like diapers, wipes or formula, Baluja wrote. He also wrote that the child wasn't secured in the stroller.
A check of Kahn's criminal history revealed that he had twice been convicted of driving under the influence, the report said.
When Baluja asked Kahn if he had any contact information for the child's mother, Kahn said she was incarcerated, the report said.
Kahn was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital because of his level of intoxication. He was treated and then taken to jail.
The baby was placed into the custody of the Broward Sheriff's Office's Child Protective Investigations Section.