LAILA Maila Cabrera Mallari has pleaded not guilty to the charge of child abuse.
Mallari, 26, is accused of leaving her two minor children, ages 3 and 4, unattended at her home for a prolonged period of time. In September 2023, the children were found “crying, smelling like marijuana, dressed only in diapers, covered in visible sores, and living in an unsanitary environment,” police said.
It was the defendant’s mother who called the police and told them that Mallari had left her kids alone at her house. The mother said Mallari is her adopted daughter, and that she has raised her since Mallari was two months old.
The mother said she was concerned especially for one of Mallari’s two children, who is autistic. She also believes that Mallari “is smoking meth.”
She said it was “not the first time Mallari left [her two children] alone. The first time she did this was when Mallari locked [her children] inside her home.” The mother said she warned Mallari that “the next time she neglects [her children] she [Mallari’s mother] would call the police.”
Police said Mallari refused to let Division of Youth Services-Child Protective Services caseworkers conduct a home assessment. She also told them that she smoked marijuana. When they asked her to take a drug test, Mallari refused. The caseworkers told her that her two children would be in the custody of their grandmother until they were done with their assessment.
At an arraignment in Superior Court on May 20, Mallari, through Assistant Public Defender Karie Comstock, waived the reading of the first amended information and of her constitutional rights, and entered a plea of not guilty. Assistant Attorney General Heather Barcinas appeared for the government.
Bail was set at 10% of $5,000.
On June 12, Associate Judge Lillian A. Tenorio granted the defendant’s request for bail modification and released her to her mother as third-party custodian, but Judge Tenorio also ordered Mallari to be on house arrest.
A status conference is scheduled for June 20 at 10 a.m.
