A mother has been arrested after her 2-year-old daughter was found in a dumpster near a Plantation hospital, police said.
Catrice Yolanda Sheffield, 28, was charged with child abuse and resisting an officer without violence following her arrest Wednesday, Plantation Police said.
Sheffield remained behind bars on $16,000 bond Thursday, jail records showed. It's unknown if she's hired an attorney.
"You are absolutely not allowed to have any direct or indirect contact with the two-year-old daughter," said Judge John Hurley in court.
Police said Sheffield's child was found in a dumpster near Plantation General Hospital, at 401 Northwest 42nd Avenue. The child was in the hospital as a precaution but appears to be OK, police said.
"It caught me unexpectedly and I would have never thought she would have done anything like this," said Kinzell Payne, child's father.
According to an arrest report, a witnesses said he saw a woman pacing near the dumpster with a child, then watched as she threw the child into the dumpster and quickly walked away.
Two medical assistants stopped the woman and pulled the girl out of the dumpster, the report said.
"She was not crying or anything, but I did not want her to remember that moment, so I ran and I took her out," Sudien Graham explained.
When the assistants asked the woman why she did it, she replied "I had a miscarriage five months ago and I'm depressed," the report said.
The report said Sheffield gave an officer two fake names before giving her real name. Sheffield also denied throwing her daughter into the dumpster.
"Everyone is crazy and I did not throw my daughter in the dumpster, I put her in the dumpster," she said, according to the report.
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Sheffield appeared disoriented and told the officer she had a few drinks and smoked marijuana the day before, the report said.
She made two appearances in court Thursday. One to determine who will care for her child and a second appearance to answer criminal charges of child abuse and resisting arrest.
"This court believes that if there had not been intervention by the witnesses, this case would've turned out much differently and you would be here on much more serious charges," Broward Judge John Hurley said.
Payne told authorities he would likely fail a drug test, so the family court judge ordered the toddler to say with her grandmother.
