Nathalie Belizaire, the North Miami Beach mother accused of leaving her four young children home alone while she went on a cruise to the Bahamas, has been ordered by a judge to stay away from them as her case moves forward.
Belizaire, 29, appeared in bond court Tuesday, where the judge rebuked her over the allegations, set her bond at $10,000 and ordered her to have no contact with the children. She wiped away tears as the judge told her she must stay away from her kids. She posted bond and was released Tuesday night.
Her public defender filed a written plea of not guilty in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, and her attorney says she denies the allegations. Belizaire is charged with four counts of child neglect without great bodily harm.
Police say officers found the four children alone inside the family’s North Miami Beach apartment on September 26, including a 2 month old baby and a 2 year old. According to the arrest report, Belizaire “left all four minor children, including a 2-month-old infant and a 2-year-old child, inside the residence without adult supervision while the defendant traveled out of town aboard a Carnival Conquest cruise ship.
The arrest report says the father of Belizaire’s youngest child saw what appeared to be a Carnival cruise ticket on her social media days before the trip. When he asked her about it, she told him she would be leaving the children with their great-grandmother. The great-grandmother told police Belizaire said she would drop the kids off because she was going out of town, but never brought them over. Belizaire’s brother also told police he got a text asking him to check on the children.
Officers tried to reach Belizaire several times while she was at sea without success. When the Carnival Conquest returned to PortMiami on Monday, authorities were waiting, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection took her into custody as she got off the ship. According to the report, she declined to give a statement and invoked her right to remain silent.
Officials have not said publicly where the children are staying, and a date for her next court appearance has not been announced.
