Mom's arrest leads police to boy alone, baby in yard
By ALEX LEARY
Published August 16, 2003
NEW PORT RICHEY - It was 7 a.m. Friday when New Port Richey Police arrested Tonya M. Picciotti on a DUI charge after she hit another car on Main Street.
As she spoke with police, slurring her words, they said, the 29-year-old New Port Richey woman made a passing comment: "I have some kids that are with my sister."
That struck Cpl. Dale Mann as odd. He quickly left the scene and went to Picciotti's house at 6051 Tennessee Ave.
Police say this is what he found:
On the front lawn, a 10-month-old girl in a bassinet.
In the house, a sleeping 4-year-old boy.
The oven was turned on, set to broil, yet empty. A marijuana pipe lay on the couch. There were dirty diapers and open medication.
And the sister wasn't there. The kids were all alone.
"We can only think what would have happened had the younger child been exposed to the elements all day," Cpl. Jeffrey Harrington said. "When I got there at 8:30 a.m., it was extremely warm."
"This was systematic neglect for the children, willful and wanton," Harrington said.
Police said Picciotti told them she had a few drinks at the house that morning. Told that her kids were found home alone, she said she left them for "two minutes," police said.
Wherever she was headed, she probably did not count on an accident.
While driving her Dodge pickup along Main Street, Picciotti slammed into the back of an Oldsmobile parked at the intersection of River Road.
The Oldsmobile lurched forward and slammed into a third vehicle turning onto Main, police said. One driver suffered a broken arm.
In addition to DUI with injury, Picciotti was arrested on two felony charges of child neglect. She was being held Friday in lieu of $21,000 bail.
A relative, reached in Clearwater, declined comment. The children were taken into custody by child protective investigators from the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, police said.
Records show Picciotti was arrested in February in Pinellas County on charges of possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
