Teen accused of throwing newborn out of a window says she was a rape victim

The teenager who is accused of tossing her newborn baby out of a second floor window into the alleyway below on Saratoga Street in September was held on $10,000 cash bail this week and ordered to return to court on December 22. She is also the subject of a detention order filed by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Eva Flores, 18, of East Boston was indicted last week on charges of assault and battery on a child causing serious injury and wanton and reckless endangerment of a child.

Attorney for Flores told the court the entire incident began with a brutal rape back in her native El Salvador. After she learned she was pregnant the man allegedly threatened to kill her and her family.

“This whole thing seemed to have started with a brutal rape,’’ said Attorney Francisco Napolitano. “That’s what has gone astray here.’’

Assistant District Attorney Leora Joseph, Chief of Conley’s Child Protection Unit, told the court that the defendant’s neighbors on Saratoga Street heard the “screaming and crying of a newborn infant in an abandoned alleyway near their address” on the night of September 20.

“Upon investigation with a flashlight, they observed a naked baby lying face down in a cement alleyway that is actually blocked off on either side,” said Joseph.

One of those neighbors jumped through a first floor window to retrieve the baby boy. The child had his umbilical cord partially attached, scratches on his body and was covered in meconium.

The neighbors contacted authorities. The alleyway, which was blocked by a permanent wooden barrier, had to be cleared by Boston firefighters before emergency medical technicians and Boston Police officers could get access to the child.

Paramedics rushed the newborn to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was treated over a two-week period for a number of injuries. Although doctors were initially concerned about hypothermia, they realized that he had a skull fracture, brain bleeds, and a seizure disorder. The newborn was placed in a neck collar and is currently in a medical foster care program through the Department of Children and Families.

Flores was also transported to the hospital for medical treatment. “A police investigation revealed that the baby had been birthed that evening to this defendant,” said Joseph. Flores was living with family members on the second floor of the Saratoga Street apartment building adjacent to the alley, Joseph said, and was enrolled in a local high school.

“She revealed to investigators that she birthed the baby in the bathtub of her home, she had not told her mother she was pregnant–and that after the baby was born she opened the window in the bathroom and threw the baby out the window,” Joseph told the court.

After executing a search warrant on the home, Boston Police detectives measured a distance of 17 feet from the window to the ground below. Investigators also retrieved part of the umbilical cord from the drainpipe of the defendant’s bathtub and discovered bloody clothing, sheets, and towels in a white plastic bag under the defendant’s bed.

Flores allegedly told police that she did not want the baby and that was the reason she threw him out the window.

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