This is one of those stories that make you roll your eyes, look at the person involved and, in your best Bill Duke voice, tell him he effed up and needs his ass whooped. A Southern California man who left his 9-month-old daughter in a parked car while he went inside a strip club to get lap dances was sentenced to jail time and probation Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
According to a news release from the DA’s office, 26-year-old Auwin Dargin of Van Nuys, Calif., pleaded no contest Wednesday to a felony count of child abuse and was sentenced to 10 days in county jail, five years’ probation, 52 weeks of parenting classes and 45 days of service to the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), KTLA reports.
Dargin left his daughter in a parked, locked car during a daytime visit to Synn Gentleman’s Club in North Hills on March 9, 2016, according to the Los Angeles Times. Matthew Nadeau, an assistant manager at the club, was patrolling the parking lot at about 2 p.m. and became suspicious when he noticed Dargin repeatedly exiting and re-entering the club every 15 minutes.
Upon further investigation, Nadeau and a waitress from the club found the baby crying in the car. The car window was partly open, and Nadeau’s cousin was able to squeeze his arm through it and unlock the door so they could remove the baby from her car seat. Nadeau said that the baby was warm and visibly upset.
Dargin was in the middle of receiving a lap dance when the club’s manager stopped it to notify him that they had taken his baby out of the car.
According to Nadeau, Dargin was upset that the lap dance was interrupted and said, “Just give me my baby, and I know I’m messing up.”
Nadeau said that he called police and told Dargin that he should call his wife.
“You can leave, but you are not leaving with your baby,” Nadeau said he told Dargin. “I have daughters—over my dead body am I going to let you take this baby today.”
Dargin first accused Nadeau of kidnapping his daughter, then tried to leave without her, but LAPD stopped him as he attempted to leave the club.
Dargin originally pleaded not guilty to the child abuse charge, according to KTLA, and he would have faced a possibility of six years in state prison if convicted on the felony count.
Read more at KTLA and the Los Angeles Times.