VAN NUYS : Probation Given in Abandonment Case

A Reseda woman was placed on probation Tuesday and ordered to continue psychiatric care as a result of her conviction on charges of leaving her 18-month-old daughter in a shopping cart in a West Hills discount store.

Hang Tran, 35, pleaded guilty Feb. 3 to one misdemeanor count of child abandonment as a result of the incident in the Target store at the Fallbrook Mall.

“Our main position was that she receive treatment and (to ensure) the safety of the kids,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Leonard J. Shaffer said.

Tran pleaded no contest--the equivalent of a guilty plea in criminal court proceedings--as a result of a plea bargain in which prosecutors dismissed two felony charges.

Van Nuys Municipal Judge Jessica Perrin Silvers sentenced Tran to three years probation and ordered that all contact with her two children be supervised by a responsible adult.

The victim in the child abandonment case recently turned 2 years old. A second daughter, a 10-month-old, was not left in the store. The children are currently being cared for by the parents of Tran’s estranged husband, who live in El Toro, family members said.

Tran is undergoing treatment in the Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk.

Relatives have blamed the incident on Tran’s mental illness and her inability to speak English. Tran lived in Vietnam during the war and fled when Communists took over South Vietnam.