Cops: Child taken on night of drinking, drugs

Police report that a 7-year-old Riviera Beach girl spent the night in the back-seat of her step-father's car as he drove to Miami and back, drinking and drugging at various stops along the way.

Antonio Peldon Braxton, 43, was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with child neglect. A judge Wednesday morning ordered him held on $1,000 bond and released under the condition he have no contact with the girl.

The girl's mother, whose name was not released, called police Tuesday morning, saying she had sent her husband, Braxton, to pick up the girl from school Monday and hadn't seen either of the two since.

The police say they spotted Braxton's silver Mazda Protégé shortly after and when they pulled him over, the girl was in the backseat looking "tired and her clothing was dirty."

Unprompted, the girl announced that she slept in the car all night by herself, the the arrest report said. According to that report, Braxton eventually told police he had been drinking and using cocaine.

An investigator with the state's Department of Children and Families met with the mother, instructed that Braxton no longer be allowed to pick up the child from school, according to the arrest report.