Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A local couple reportedly left their 2-month-old son alone in a car in January while they went inside a city court to pay citations.

The parents, Chelsea May Allen, 22, and Adam Christopher Casey, 30, both of Port Arthur, were indicted Wednesday by a Jefferson County grand jury on a charge of abandon/endanger child with intent to return.

A Nederland Municipal Court Administrator notified police an infant had been left unattended in a vehicle one block away from the Nederland Municipal Court on Jan. 23.

The couple reportedly told police the child belonged to them and they left the child in the car while they paid citations with the City of Nederland.

They further stated that Allen had only momentarily left the child in order to provide her ID to court staff, the document read.

A witness told police Allen and Casey entered the lobby together and had been in court for approximately five to 10 minutes.

The responding officer noted the child was in the car with the engine turned off and the windows rolled up. The temperature that day was in the 50s and the baby was wearing only a diaper.

The vehicle was parked approximately 245 feet from the entrance to the court lobby and while in the lobby there was reportedly no line of sight to the vehicle.

The responding officer reportedly smelled marijuana coming from the car and located marijuana and related narcotics in the vehicle, the document read.

Allen and Casey were arrested June 2 with bond set at $6,500 each and bonded out the same day, according to information from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

Mary Meaux is a news reporter at The Port Arthur News. She can be reached at mary.meaux@panews.com.