A 41-year-old Scranton woman was found slumped over the steering wheel of a running car outside a Lackawanna County health center with her 16-month-old child alone in the back seat for roughly 90 minutes, according to police. Gabrielle Lomonaco, who lives on New York Street in Scranton, now faces charges including endangering the welfare of children, DUI, and driving while her operating privilege was suspended with a blood alcohol concentration over .02.
The discovery happened on October 8 at around 3:45 p.m., when Officer Mark Striefsky responded to The Wright Center at 5 S. Washington Ave. in Archbald, as reported by the Scranton Times-Tribune. A construction worker heard a baby crying inside a blue 2017 Mercedes-Benz. Bystanders managed to wake Lomonaco, who was slumped over the wheel and unresponsive, before officers arrived, then walked her and the child into the building, where Officer Striefsky met Wright Center employee Lou Strazzeri.
The Wright Center for Community Health's Mid Valley location in Jermyn and Archbald operates as a Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike, offering primary pediatric and adult care alongside addiction, recovery, and behavioral health services, according to The Wright Center for Community Health. The facility serves as a regional safety-net clinic across Lackawanna County regardless of a patient's insurance status, which adds local context to where the incident unfolded.
Toddler Left Alone While Mother Was Unresponsive
Emergency medical technicians evaluated Lomonaco at the scene, but she refused treatment and transport to a hospital, the report notes. She reportedly told responders, “I guess I fell asleep in the car.” She had appointments scheduled at another facility around 1 p.m. and at The Wright Center at 2 p.m. that day.
Officers determined from video footage that Lomonaco arrived at the center at 2:13 p.m. and was not awoken until around 3:42 p.m., according to police. That timeline means the toddler was unsupervised in the vehicle for approximately 90 minutes while Lomonaco remained unresponsive, police said.
Lomonaco told officers she takes several different medications and admitted to taking a muscle relaxer before driving to the appointment, while denying that she had used illegal drugs or had been drinking alcohol. She failed two field sobriety tests and consented to a blood draw, the outlet reported. Her boyfriend and stepmother later picked up the child from the medical facility.
Enhanced Penalties Tied to Child's Presence
Pennsylvania's Vehicle Code imposes heightened mandatory penalties when a minor under 18 is present during a DUI offense, adding a mandatory $1,000 fine and 100 hours of community service on top of standard sentencing for a first offense, according to a DUI-law article citing state law. Separately, operating a vehicle on a DUI-suspended license while carrying a blood alcohol concentration of 0.02% or higher triggers its own mandatory minimum under state law, including a $1,000 fine and at least 90 days in jail, per Lampman Law.
The child endangerment charge Lomonaco faces is typically graded as a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to five years in prison under Pennsylvania's penal code, though it can escalate to a third-degree felony carrying up to seven years if committed as a course of conduct or if the victim is under six years old, according to CaseMine.
Bail Set at $7,500 as Hearing Looms
As of Tuesday, Lomonaco remained in Lackawanna County Prison in lieu of $7,500 bail, the Times-Tribune reported. Bail decisions may consider the seriousness of an offense and the likelihood that a defendant will appear in court.
Lomonaco has a preliminary hearing scheduled for October 22 at 10:45 a.m. At that stage, prosecutors need only establish a prima facie case showing a crime occurred and that she likely committed it — a far lower bar than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard required at trial, per Rubin, Glickman, Steinberg & Gifford. If the charges are bound over, the case would move to the Court of Common Pleas.
Lomonaco consented to a blood draw.
