Judge sets $10,000 bond for Nathalie Belizaire in neglect case

A Miami-Dade judge set bond at $10,000 for Nathalie Belizaire on Sept. 29 and ordered the 29-year-old North Miami Beach mother to stay at least 500 feet from her four children, who have been placed in foster care.

Belizaire faces four counts of child neglect without great bodily harm, one for each child, after North Miami Beach police said she left them alone in her apartment while she sailed on a three-day Carnival cruise to the Bahamas. Officers were waiting at PortMiami on Sept. 28 when the ship docked, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection took her into custody as she disembarked and turned her over to local police.

The children, including a 2-month-old girl and a 2-year-old, were found on the night of Sept. 26, the day after the ship left Miami. Police and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue forced entry into the North Miami Beach apartment and found all four hiding together in the bathroom with no adult present.

In bond court on Tuesday

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer, presiding at Tuesday's hearing, said, "You cannot make this up," and asked of the infant, "Who leaves a baby alone like that?" Glazer also noted that the youngest of the four was born in July of this year.

These poor kids, four of them, were home alone for three days ... I'm just grateful nothing worse happened to these kids.

Bond was set at $10,000, $2,500 per child. Belizaire paid it and was released on Tuesday night, NBC South Florida reported.

The order bars contact with the children directly, indirectly, in person, in writing, by phone or through third parties, and requires her to stay at least 500 feet away from them at all times, including at their home and school, WSVN reported.

How police found the children

The arrest report describes what Lether Bazile, the father of the 2-month-old, told officers: he saw a post on Belizaire's WhatsApp story on Thursday, Sept. 24, showing what appeared to be a cruise ticket purchase, and she told him that day that she would be dropping the children off with their great-grandmother.

Bazile went to the apartment on Saturday night, Sept. 26, saw the television on through the blinds and heard the children talking inside. He called 911. Police and firefighters forced the door, and body camera video showed officers gathering the four children and leading them outside.

The children's great-grandmother told police that Belizaire had said she would be dropping the children off because she was going out of town, but that she never brought them over. Her brother told police his sister texted him at about 8 p.m. on Saturday, instructing him to check on her children. Multiple attempts by police to reach Belizaire were unsuccessful.

The three-day sailing

An investigation found Belizaire had bought a three-day ticket to the Bahamas aboard the Carnival Conquest with a sail date of Sept. 25. The ship left PortMiami that Friday and returned to Miami on Sept. 28.

The report states that Belizaire "left all four minor children, including a 2-month-old infant and a 2-year-old child, inside the residence without adult supervision while the defendant traveled out of town aboard a Carnival Conquest cruise ship." Investigators found sufficient probable cause that she had failed to provide the necessary care and supervision for the four children, exposing them to a substantial risk of harm.

Belizaire declined to provide a statement after her arrest and invoked her right to remain silent.

Each count is a third-degree felony under Florida Statute 827.03, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, which leaves her facing a maximum of 20 years across the four. The statute defines neglect as a caregiver's failure or omission to provide a child with the care, supervision and services necessary for physical and mental health.

Two cases, two tracks

The Department of Children and Families is also investigating, CBS News Miami reported.

The four children are safe and in foster care, authorities said. Glazer's stay-away order holds until the Department of Children and Families can investigate.

A prior arrest in 2025

Belizaire, who was charged on Sept. 28 with four counts of child neglect, has a prior case with the same police department. She was arrested in January 2025 and charged with aggravated battery after allegedly pepper-spraying a neighbor in both eyes during a dispute over claims the neighbor had harassed her daughter, Hoodline reported, citing Local 10 News.

What the defense argued

Her defense attorney told the court that the accusation was "only an allegation" at that point and that she denies it, Fox News reported. "Of course she does," Glazer answered, before noting that Belizaire had been arrested as she got off the cruise ship.

When the attorney asked who had been responsible for the children at the time, Glazer said it is usually the mother, the person who gave birth to them.

It's not just mothers that are in charge of children, judge. It's also fathers and grandparents and other people.

Glazer answered that mothers always know who their children are and that fathers may not, but that it looked like there were different fathers in this case. One of those fathers, she said, grew concerned and called the police.

Body camera footage from inside the apartment showed the 2-year-old and two older siblings, one holding the newborn, Fox News reported.

What happens next

Whether the children stay in foster care now turns on the Department of Children and Families, whose investigators are tasked with determining if they need temporary protective custody while the criminal case moves forward. Local reporting put the two older siblings at 7 and 9.

Belizaire has been charged and not convicted, and the arrest report and the accounts of Tuesday's hearing give no date for her next court appearance.