The 49-year-old woman who was arrested in August after a baby she was supposed to be looking after had to be rescued from a burning building will remain detained while her case is pending at the Montreal courthouse.
According to court records, Josée Milot was denied bail following a two-hour hearing held on Thursday. Quebec Court Judge Manlio Del Negro denied the request for a release, presented by defence lawyer Antonio Cabral. The case is scheduled to return to court in November. Cabral had conceded in the past that his client has a problem with drug abuse.
On Aug. 31, Montreal police officers, who happened to be nearby while responding to an unrelated incident, rescued the one-year-old child from an apartment building on Dézéry St., in the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough, after someone noticed the building was on fire and called out for help. The baby appeared to be in respiratory distress and had to be taken to a hospital, but recovered from the ordeal.
The baby’s mother was out of town at the time and had asked Milot to babysit. Following her arrest, the Montreal police said they believed Milot had left something cooking while she visited another apartment.
She was charged with failing to provide the necessities of life to a person under the age of 16, abandoning a child to the point where their life is endangered, and arson by negligence. A charge alleging that Milot obstructed a police officer in the execution of their duty on the night of the fire was added a few days following her arrest.
At the time of her arrest, Milot was already facing charges of theft of items where the value was under $5,000. She was also still serving a conditional sentence she received on Sept. 25, 2015, for drug trafficking. The sentence involved a prison term of two years less a day, but Milot was allowed to serve it in the community.
