Cops: Mom charged after leaving daughter, 2, alone outside DuPage courthouse

A woman was charged with endangering the life of her 2-year-old daughter Friday after the child was found alone and crying outside the DuPage County courthouse in Wheaton, police said.

Sadeya Albiss, 52, of Bridgeview, was arrested about 8:45 a.m. after sheriff's deputies were notified of a young girl sitting on a curb near the traffic lane of the parking lot, according to a news release. Police described the child as “cold, scared and crying.”

Deputies were taking the girl into the courthouse to warm up when Albiss ran up, waving a piece of paper, authorities said. Police said Albiss didn't initially admit being the child's mother.

“She (said) she told the child to stand by a car so that she could go and retrieve paperwork from her car,” the sheriff's office said in a news release. “The woman refused to acknowledge that leaving the child unattended in the parking lot alone, in the cold and snow, was a problem.”

Albiss, of the 8800 block of South Harlem Avenue, was charged with misdemeanor endangering the life of a child and taken to the county jail. Bond had not been set.