By Dustin Brown
The father of a toddler who was found wandering the streets of Woodside by a cab driver early last Thursday morning has been arrested on charges of assaulting his wife and abandoning his 2-year-old child, the Queens district attorney said.
Jorge Zurita, 21, of 37-71 62nd St., allegedly left his child home alone after his wife fled the house following a domestic dispute, enabling the little girl to get out of the house and wander more than a block away to Roosevelt Avenue in the early morning hours, police said.
He has been charged with assault, harassment and endangering the welfare of a child, according to the criminal complaint filed by the Queens district attorney’s office.
Zurita’s wife, Irma Campoverdi, told police he punched her in the face with a closed fist, the criminal complaint said.
After the alleged March 20 assault, Campoverdi left the toddler in her husband’s care and fled the couple’s Woodside house with their three-month-old baby, according to published reports.
A livery cab driver, Guaman Bermejo, found the young girl hours later wandering alone at the corner of 62nd Street and Roosevelt Avenue at 3 a.m. last Thursday.
Bermejo brought the girl to safety and called the police, who picked up the child and canvassed the area in search of her parents, a police source said.
The 2-year-old was taken to the 108th Precinct station house and put in the custody of the Administration for Children’s Services, which housed her overnight at a shelter on Archer Avenue in Jamaica, police said.
The parents were located when the girl’s uncle heard an announcement broadcast on Spanish-language radio and sent a relative to pick her up, police said.
No one answered the door Friday at Zurita’s Woodside home.
The home is a one-story concrete building with its only front window barred shut.
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
