Flor Escalante
WAUKESHA, Wis. - Flor Escalante of Watertown pleaded guilty in Waukesha County court on Thursday, Nov. 20, to a charge of abandonment of a child. This, after police say she left her 12-year-old son on the side of the interstate and drove off. A second charge of neglecting a child was dismissed and read into the court record.
After Escalante entered the guilty plea Thursday, the court entered the penalty phase of the case. The Waukesha County judge withheld a sentence and instead gave Escalante two years probation.
Case details
What we know:
Officials say Escalante was driving her 12-year-old to Sylvan Learning Center in Brookfield in November 2024 when the two got into an argument about the boy's grades. Deputies say the argument led Escalante to pull over. Her son got out of the car – and she drove off.
Officials said at the time of the incident, it was about 50 degrees outside – and traffic was whizzing by at 70 miles per hour.
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Court records shows Escalante told police after she left her son on the side of the interstate, she did a U-turn to go back for him, but she couldn't find him. So she drove straight to Sylvan Learning.
After deputies found the boy, they drove to Sylvan and arrested Escalante. Court records say she told police she did it because she felt her son did not appreciate everything she did for him. Escalante said she works multiple jobs – and told the boy to finish walking the nearly two miles to Sylvan so he would understand "what labor is."
The Source: Information in this post was provided by Wisconsin Circuit Court Access, the criminal complaint associated with this case, and previous FOX6 News coverage.