John Jefferson
Inset: Domonique Knowles being arrested (WKYC). Background: The apartment complex where she left her kids unattended for several days (WOIO).
A 32-year-old mother in Ohio may end up behind bars for leaving her three young children home alone for several days so she could travel to Florida to be with a friend who was having liposuction. Domonique Knowles is scheduled to appear in Rocky River Municipal Court on Wednesday where she will learn her fate, records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Wednesday’s sentencing hearing comes after a bench trial in which the presiding judge found Knowles guilty of two counts of endangering children, both misdemeanors. She is facing a maximum possible sentence of 12 months in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.
Police said Knowles’ children — a 10-year-old girl and 7-year-old twin girls with special needs — were left alone inside a deplorable apartment for three days without a working phone.
The investigation into Knowles began when one of the younger children on Feb. 22, 2024, informed their teacher at Westlake City Schools that she and her siblings were home alone while their mother was out of state, Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC reported. The 7-year-old reportedly told the teacher that Knowles would check in with the kids sporadically using a laptop to video chat and was ordering them delivery food.
The special education teacher then called 911 and requested a welfare check on the children, telling police she believed the mother was in Texas.
“I’m just a little uncomfortable thinking that my student and her sisters are home alone while the mother is out of state,” the teacher can be heard saying on the 911 call.
Police went to the apartment, which they described as being in “shambles,” and found the children home alone. The home was reportedly covered in trash and an unknown liquid covered the floor, causing one of the 7-year-old girls to fall in front of the responding officers.
Police were able to locate Knowles’ mother and placed the kids in the care of their grandmother. The grandmother told police that her daughter was not out of state and was with a friend who had been hospitalized.
Westlake Chief Prosecuting Attorney Michael P. Maloney told Shaker Heights, Ohio, CBS affiliate WOIO that while away, Knowles rarely contacted her children.
“Mom wasn’t really checking in. Remote work is one thing, remote mom is another. But mom wasn’t even checking in,” Maloney said.
The prosecutor also noted that Knowles was not honest with her own mother as to her whereabouts after police used Knowles’ cellphone to track her location to Florida.
“She lied,” Maloney told the station. “They showed her leaving Hopkins airport on the evening in question, timed the calls showing mom at an airport in Miami in about a two-hour time frame, which, of course, is about the flight time from Cleveland to Miami, and when mom was confronted with that, she changed her story and said something about having to be in Miami because her friend needed liposuction surgery.”
When police made contact with Knowles, she told the officers that her kids “are allowed to be here by themselves,” per WOIO.
“Not when you have two special needs kids,” the arresting officer responded.
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