Original Blog Entry: Parents arrested for trying to leave daughter, 6, at police station

truesee — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 18:42:02 GMT

Staten Island couple arrested for child endangerment for taking daughter, 6, to police to scare her

Rocco Parascandola AND Rich Schapiro

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Wednesday, February 23rd 2011, 1:09 PM

via Facebook

Enayla Santiago's parents took the six-year-old to a police station - and then got taught a lesson of their own.

A Staten Island couple's plan to scare their troublemaking daughter straight by bringing her to a police station backfired when cops arrested them for child endangerment.

The parental misfire occurred Friday when Annette Gerhardt and her fiance, Gerardo Santiago, brought their 6-year-old daughter to the 120th precinct stationhouse.

The couple's daughter, Enayla, was acting out in school, and Gerhardt got the idea to take her to a police station after a friend did the same thing with her problem child.

They pulled her kid aside and said, 'This is where bad girls and boys go, Gerhardt, 25, told the Daily News Wednesday. That's what I was looking for.

That's not what happened.

Gerhardt said that after she escorted her daughter inside and asked an officer to play along with the gag, the cop turned serious and reprimanded her instead.

She told me that I was an unfit mother, Gerhardt said. I sat there with tears in my eyes.

Minutes later, both Gerhardt and Santiago, 27, who was waiting in a car outside, were arrested and charged with misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child.

They were arraigned on Saturday and released on their own recognizance.

Cops say that Gerhardt was arrested as she walked out of the precinct, leaving her daughter behind, after telling officers, I can't control her any more. I'm leaving her here. If I can't leave her here, I'll leave her at the firehouse.

But Gerhardt's lawyer claims it was all just a big misunderstanding.

It's really just a misunderstanding that police blew out of proportion, said Matthew Blum. She was trying to scare her daughter straight...Her mistake was not contacting police before doing this.

Enayla was in the custody of her grandmother until Tuesday when she was returned to her parents.

Gerhardt and Santiago have been in trouble with the law before.

The young couple was reportedly busted last April on felony drug charges after cops discovered a half-pound of marijuana in their home.

For her part, Gerhardt says she wishes she never stepped foot in the stationhouse with her daughter.

It was horrible, Gerhardt said. It's an experience you just wished in that moment that you didn't do it - that you could just take it all back.

LINK TO PHOTO OF PARENTS AND AUDIO:

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/02/22/staten-island-parents-arrested-after-trying-to-teach-daughter-lesson/#

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