News that the tale of an adorable abandoned baby was only half-true has resulted in a number of arrests and many questions. And it's possible the baby's 14-year-old mother may not have known about the scheme.
Livery car driver Klever Sailema, who dropped off the baby at a Queens firehouse claiming she was abandoned in his cab, was charged with criminal facilitation and filing a false police report. He told the Post in an exclusive interview:
"I feel really bad. It wasn't my intention to hurt anybody," a shaken Sailema said from a holding cell in Kew Gardens yesterday. "We did it so that the girl would be well cared for. I just wanted to help."
The cabby, a father of three from Elmhurst said that he kept up the ruse because "every time I lied I thought it would end there.
"I felt terrible. In my heart I knew it wasn't right. It was a mistake."
The baby's aunt Maria Siavichay and her brother, the baby's father, 27-year-old Carlos Rodas, apparently asked Sailema for help in ditching the 6-month-old baby. Siavichay was charged with criminal facilitation while the police are looking for Rodas, who may face statutory rape charges.
Rodas referred to the baby's mother as his "wife" but they had a fight and the teen left the apartment and the baby with Rodas. Rodas's super said that a few weeks ago Rodas told him, "My wife left me last night, she left the baby and I don't know what to do." A neighbor of Rodas who baby-sat the infant in the past few weeks saw the baby's picture and called the police on Friday.
Also on Friday, a family friend saw the girl crying and holding a newspaper with her baby's photo in the Bronx; Stuart Caban said, "She was depressed, scared, crying. She loved her daughter. She wanted to be with her," so he took her to the 46th Precinct. And per the Daily News, "The young mom told Caban she had been abused and threatened by Rodas and claimed he snatched the baby away from her."
Sailema said he was giving friend Siavichay a ride to work, but she got into the car with Rodas and the baby. Rodas asked him to take the baby to the fire house, saying he couldn't do it himself because of "a problem with the courts."
Sailema told the Post, "I don't know how I committed a crime." The NY Taxi Drivers Federation, which said it would give him a $300 reward last Thursday, though, said it would still give him the reward and even help him pay his legal expenses and bail if neede. Union head Fernando Mateo said, "The bottom line is, he delivered a child to a Fire Department safe and sound." But the Taxi and Limousine Commission will not be honoring Sailema next month; a spokesman said, "Obviously, the offer has been rescinded. We're very disappointed in his alleged role in this sad scheme."
Sailema's lawyer said, "It appears he did everything right and he acted responsibly for the welfare of the child," noting the state's Safe Haven law. However, the law, as commenters pointed out yesterday, only applies to days-old infants. "Safe haven" foundation AMT Children of Hope's Timothy Jaccard says he received a call about dropping off a baby last Thursday from a man in Queens and tells the News he has "successfully arranged for parents to relinquish months-old infants for adoption if they ask."
And the baby, named Daniella (the hospital had named her Lourdes), remains in custody of ACS, in a foster home. It's unclear what will happen to her.
