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Parents Charged After Teen Emerges From Trunk

By KYLE MARTIN

Hernando Today

Published: September 23, 2008

A two-car crash took a strange turn Saturday afternoon when a teenager climbed out of the trunk of one of the vehicles involved, deputies say.
The '91 Mercury loaded with four children, two parents and the teen in the trunk was southbound on Mariner Boulevard when a gold Chevy pulled out of the Walgreens parking lot into their path, a report states.
Witnesses told responding deputies that when the Mercury pulled over into the Circle K parking lot at the intersection of Mariner and Cortez boulevards, the teen hopped out of the trunk. They had no problem identifying her: The bright pink and blue hair was a giveaway, a report states.
The parents in the car, Diane and Phillip Ortiz, 39 and 47, of 11234 Elgin Blvd., initially denied having anyone in the trunk, a report states, but they eventually recanted and gave the full story.
The couple was returning from the Department of Juvenile Justice with the teen and had to pick up two of their children, along with two children of a mutual friend. With no room in the back seat, the teen asked to ride in the trunk, a report states.
No one was injured in the crash. The parents were both charged with felony child abuse.
When reached by phone Monday afternoon, Diane Ortiz had no comment. The alleged trunk rider, however, did.
"There was no child abuse," said Karissa Ortiz, 16, adding that it was only a five-minute ride from her friend's house to home and that she volunteered to ride in the trunk. "Everything that happened is so ridiculous."
Ortiz said the trunk was cracked so that she could breathe.
"It was fun," she said.
There is no specific statute that outlaws riding in trunks, but the child abuse charge was pressed because the teen was in a position that could result in "serious mental and/or physical injury," according to an affidavit.
Also, children under the age of 18 must be legally restrained — even in the bed of a pickup truck, said Sgt. Donna Black, spokeswoman for the sheriff's office.