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Dr. leaves baby in car while he is at a strip club
Eliot Kleinberg
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 4:16 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, 2009
The Web page for cosmetic dentist Dr. Omar Abdo offers "a new beautiful smile."
But Abdo probably isn't smiling now.
Early Thursday, Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies allege, the owner of Jupiter Prosthodontics left his 8-month-old daughter in a locked car, engine running, while he had a drink with a dancer at the Flashdance strip club.
He told a deputy he had made a "bad judgment call," according to a report.
Abdo, 39, of West Palm Beach, is charged with child neglect and child cruelty.
He left the Palm Beach County Jail Thursday evening after posting $20,000 bond, records show.
As a condition, he is forbidden contact with little Jenna except with another person present.
According to the sheriff's report, around 1 a.m. Thursday, deputies were on foot patrol in the parking lot of the club, at 4458 Purdy Lane, at S. Military Trail south of Forest Hill Boulevard in suburban West Palm Beach.
They came across Abdo's white Jeep Cherokee. Its doors were locked and the engine was running.
Inside, the deputy could see small feet moving beneath a blanket.
At first, parking lot workers told the deputy they believed a puppy was inside.
In the club, the report said, a manager pointed out Abdo, still in his scrubs, having a drink with one of the dancers.
When the deputy told Abdo he'd found his car running in the lot, he "responded that he left his vehicle running because his baby was sleeping inside the vehicle and he was only inside the establishment for a few seconds," the report said.
It said surveillance video would later show he was inside for about an hour.
Deputies then cuffed Abdo and led him outside, where they used his keys to open the car.
Inside, Jenna was face down in a bassinet in the backseat, "hysterically crying," the report said.
Abdo's wife, Dr. Lana Al-Karmi, who works at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Riviera Beach, was sleeping at home and rushed to the club to claim her daughter, authorities said.
"She was extremely upset," sheriff's spokeswoman Teri Barbera said today.
A VA spokeswoman said today Al-Karmi did not want to comment.
A call this morning to Jupiter Prosthodontics during office hours nevertheless produced a recording saying the office was closed.
An emergency number given for Abdo came back as disconnected. A call to his business partner asking he pass on a request for comment, wasn't immediately returned.
A memo from sheriff's Sgt. Talal Masri to a supervisor said he believed the deputies "could have possibly saved this child's life" because the child could have suffocated or someone could have broken into or even stolen the car.
Sheriff's records show deputies were called to Club 179 times in the last year.
"Flashdance feels this behavior was reprehensible," an employee who didn't want to give his name said today. "Our policy always is and has been full cooperation with any police agency."
According to his Web page, Abdo graduated dental school in 1992. He is a professor at Nova Southeastern University School of Dental Medicine in Fort Lauderdale and had been a staff prosthodontist at the VA Medical Center since 2000.
This is in a VERY ROUGH AREA and I can't believe there are any women working there worth looking at!
Eliot Kleinberg
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 4:16 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, 2009
The Web page for cosmetic dentist Dr. Omar Abdo offers "a new beautiful smile."
But Abdo probably isn't smiling now.
Early Thursday, Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies allege, the owner of Jupiter Prosthodontics left his 8-month-old daughter in a locked car, engine running, while he had a drink with a dancer at the Flashdance strip club.
He told a deputy he had made a "bad judgment call," according to a report.
Abdo, 39, of West Palm Beach, is charged with child neglect and child cruelty.
He left the Palm Beach County Jail Thursday evening after posting $20,000 bond, records show.
As a condition, he is forbidden contact with little Jenna except with another person present.
According to the sheriff's report, around 1 a.m. Thursday, deputies were on foot patrol in the parking lot of the club, at 4458 Purdy Lane, at S. Military Trail south of Forest Hill Boulevard in suburban West Palm Beach.
They came across Abdo's white Jeep Cherokee. Its doors were locked and the engine was running.
Inside, the deputy could see small feet moving beneath a blanket.
At first, parking lot workers told the deputy they believed a puppy was inside.
In the club, the report said, a manager pointed out Abdo, still in his scrubs, having a drink with one of the dancers.
When the deputy told Abdo he'd found his car running in the lot, he "responded that he left his vehicle running because his baby was sleeping inside the vehicle and he was only inside the establishment for a few seconds," the report said.
It said surveillance video would later show he was inside for about an hour.
Deputies then cuffed Abdo and led him outside, where they used his keys to open the car.
Inside, Jenna was face down in a bassinet in the backseat, "hysterically crying," the report said.
Abdo's wife, Dr. Lana Al-Karmi, who works at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Riviera Beach, was sleeping at home and rushed to the club to claim her daughter, authorities said.
"She was extremely upset," sheriff's spokeswoman Teri Barbera said today.
A VA spokeswoman said today Al-Karmi did not want to comment.
A call this morning to Jupiter Prosthodontics during office hours nevertheless produced a recording saying the office was closed.
An emergency number given for Abdo came back as disconnected. A call to his business partner asking he pass on a request for comment, wasn't immediately returned.
A memo from sheriff's Sgt. Talal Masri to a supervisor said he believed the deputies "could have possibly saved this child's life" because the child could have suffocated or someone could have broken into or even stolen the car.
Sheriff's records show deputies were called to Club 179 times in the last year.
"Flashdance feels this behavior was reprehensible," an employee who didn't want to give his name said today. "Our policy always is and has been full cooperation with any police agency."
According to his Web page, Abdo graduated dental school in 1992. He is a professor at Nova Southeastern University School of Dental Medicine in Fort Lauderdale and had been a staff prosthodontist at the VA Medical Center since 2000.
This is in a VERY ROUGH AREA and I can't believe there are any women working there worth looking at!
