Judge rules no probable cause for a Texas mom accused of putting her teen son in her trunk at a COVID-19 testing site
Texas Judge Chris Morton on Thursday discharged a woman accused of putting her child in her car trunk.
Court records show that Morton found no probable cause in Sarah Beam's case.
She said she was trying to isolate from her son, who had previously tested positive, while she drove him to the testing site.
A judge discharged a Texas mom accused of putting her 13-year-old son in the trunk of her car while driving through a COVID-19 testing site.
Sarah Beam, 41, was initially charged with a felony on January 3 after her son was discovered in the trunk of her car. She was charged with endangering a child.
Police were called to the testing site for the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District after Bevin Gordon, the director of health services for the district, discovered that the child was in the trunk, according to a criminal complaint.
According to Gordon, Beam told her she put the boy in the trunk because he had previously tested positive for COVID-19 and she wanted to isolate from him on the way to the testing site, where she planned on having him tested again.
After he noticed the child lying down in the trunk, Gordon called the police, court documents say. Surveillance footage also caught the incident on camera, according to charging documents.
Judge Chris Morton said at a hearing on Thursday that he found no probable cause in Beam's case and discharged her, Harris County court records show.
Nathaniel Pitoniak, Beam's attorney, declined Insider's request for comment.
"We absolutely respect the judge's ruling and we will continue with our work," Dane Schiller, spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney's Office told NBC News.
Insider's Kelsey Vlamis contributed to this report.
Read the original article on Insider
