Father found with children in hot car charged with felonies
A man who was found with his young children in a hot car was charged Monday with two counts of felony child abuse resulting in substantial bodily or mental harm.
Brian Laugeson stood before Judge Stephen George in Henderson Justice Court for his first hearing since he was arrested two weeks ago. George ordered him to be held on $80,000 bail in the case, and $3,000 bail in another pending case from earlier last month.
Laugeson, 59, and his 3- and 4-year-old children were found in his Ford Flex on July 24 drifting in and out of consciousness, according to an arrest report from the Henderson Police Department.
Laugeson’s children were with him for the weekend, his wife told police. The couple was separated.
He said he was planning to take them to a Mormon church in Henderson the day before they were found, but his wife said she had not heard from them.
The windows were “cracked, not rolled down entirely,” Henderson police wrote in the arrest report, and there were human feces in the backseat as well as “random articles of children’s clothing.”
The outside temperature that day reached 105 degrees, Metro detectives wrote.
Court records show the day Laugeson was found, he was wanted on another child abuse case in Henderson.
Prosecutor Tanner Sharp said Laugeson’s 3-year-old son was found scootering toward a busy street in May and a neighbor called police. Sharp said they suspected Laugeson was on methamphetamine when he was found in the desert with his children last month, and one of the children suffered a seizure while in the car.
Deputy Public Defender Jeremy Storms argued that Laugeson may have suffered a heart attack or stroke, and denied that he was under the influence of the drug.
Laugeson nodded his head, agreeing silently, when Storms said he may have suffered a medical episode.
Laugeson was ordered to have no contact with his children. He is scheduled to appear in court again later this month.
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.