By Stephen Stirling
A Flushing mother was expected to be charged Wednesday morning for the alleged abandonment of her 3-day old baby at the home of her pastor on Mother's Day, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Hua Zheng, 31, of 45-15 Bowne St. was slated to be arraigned in Queens Criminal Court Wednesday morning on charges of reckless endangerment, abandonment of a child and endangering the welfare of a child after leaving her baby on the Holly Avenue doorstep of her pastor to avoid her husband finding out about the child, the DA said.
Police said the baby was found in a basket next to a bag of diapers and formula inside the doorway of 140-32 Holly Ave. by 24-year-old Queens College student Kristina Yu around 10 p.m. Sunday night.
Yu's father is Rev. Kenny Yu of Livingstone Presbyterian Church in Corona and Brown said Zheng had tried to leave the baby in her pastor's care. Brown said New York state's safe haven laws would have protected Zheng had she informed the pastor she was leaving the child.
“The defendant is alleged to have left her 3-day-old daughter on the doorstep of a Flushing home without notifying the family inside that she was doing so,” Brown said. “She was apparently known to the family, but she failed to ask them for help or notify them that she was, in fact, leaving her baby for them to care for.”
The unnamed baby girl has been resting comfortably in stable condition at Flushing Hospital since Sunday night, according to hospital officials.
Dr. Apostolis Tsounmpariotias of Flushing Hospital has been in charge of the infant since she was brought to the medical center shortly after being found, and said the baby is doing fine.
“We don't see any obvious areas of injury. It looked like it was doing well,” Tsounmpariotias said.
Police were able to locate Zheng quickly because a tag from New York Hospital of Queens, where Zheng is on record as giving birth on May 9, was still attached to the baby's arm when she was brought into Flushing Hospital.
Brown said Zheng allegedly admitted to police that she had gotten pregnant and subsequently told her husband she had undergone an abortion. When she went into labor on May 9, she allegedly told her husband she was having complications from the abortion and went to New York Hospital of Queens to deliver, Brown said.
Brown said Zheng also allegedly admitted that after being released from the hospital she took the child and left it at her pastor's Holly Avenue home without informing him before her husband returned from work.
Yu, a 24-year-old student, said she was leaving her second floor apartment with a friend when she came across the child wrapped in a hospital blanket between the front and security doors of her apartment building. Yu immediately called police and waited for EMS officials to arrive.
Reached for further comment Monday afternoon, Yu said she was “overwhelmed” by the media coverage of the event and declined to comment further.
Reach reporter Stephen Stirling by e-mail at Sstirling@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
