![\"File](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/siren.PNG\" "\\"File")
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File art<\/p>\n
Miami Herald file<\/p>\n
A Texas teacher faces child neglect charges after authorities say he left his two foster sons unattended at a hotel, leading to one of the children wandering into a stranger\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
Francisco Javier Lara, 55, of Austin, Texas, was arrested after police discovered his 12-year-old foster son running in and out of traffic near 33rd Street and Pinetree Drive in Miami Beach, according to arrest records.<\/p>\n
Lara, who told investigators he had been drinking, brought his 10- and 12-year-old foster sons to Miami Beach on Tuesday for a vacation scheduled to end Friday.<\/p>\n
Court records state that on Wednesday, while the boys were sleeping in their room at the Catalina Hotel, Lara left them alone to consume alcoholic beverages at a nearby restaurant and bar. Upon returning and finding the children still asleep, Lara left again, according to authorities.<\/p>\n
Less than two hours later, witnesses reported seeing the 12-year-old boy, wearing only his underwear, running near traffic. Police said the child ran inside a nearby residence that was empty at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis could have gone much worse had it not been for the witnesses and our officers\u2019 response,\u201d said Officer Christopher Bess, a spokesperson for the City of Miami Beach Police Department. \u201cThe kid ended up in the home of a stranger who was in Canada at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The child provided officers with Lara\u2019s cell phone number, which led to the arrest.<\/p>\n
During a court hearing Friday, Lara told Miami-Dade County Judge Mindy Glazer that he could not afford an attorney.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth of my kids have autism, and they are high-needs, and so I made a bad choice last night,\u201d Lara said before his public defender intervened.<\/p>\n
Lara faces two counts of child neglect.<\/p>\n
This report was produced by Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"File art Miami Herald file A Texas teacher faces child neglect charges after authorities say he left his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-360076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}