A criminal case against a Florida public official accused of leaving a five-year-old boy alone in a car for more than eight hours has been dropped after a police officer failed to appear at a court hearing. Zonya Ray, 58, the Parks and Recreation Director for the city of Opa-Locka, near Miami, had been due to face a judge on Tuesday, but Miami-Dade prosecutors abandoned the charge when the officer did not turn up. The reason for the officer's absence is unknown, and the outcome means Ray avoids any penalty over the incident.

The boy was allegedly left unattended overnight in a vehicle in the car park of a local government building on 11 March, and was discovered at around 6am the following morning. Ray told police she had been transporting children to a football practice and was unaware the boy had got into the car, and allegedly admitted she had not checked the vehicle before going home for the night. She had been charged on 2 June with leaving a child unattended in a vehicle, a second-degree misdemeanour carrying a maximum penalty of 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.