Manatee couple faces child neglect charges

MANATEE — A Manatee couple has been arrested on child neglect charges after their 4-year-old daughter complained to neighbors that her parents would not wake up, according to Manatee County Sheriff’s Office reports.

The girl told neighbors her mother, Zeinah Gollsneider, 23, was passed out in their house, and her father Kevin Gollsneider, 20, was passed out in a chair in front of their home. The girl also said she feared the house, on 41st Street West, was going to catch on fire.

Emergency personnel at the house told arriving sheriff’s deputies they could smell something burning from the house, and Zeinah Gollsneider claimed she was cooking eggplant.

The deputy said both the mother and father were awake when he arrived after midnight Tuesday, and both were staggering back and forth, almost falling down. Both of the Gollsneiders admitted to “taking numerous pain medications for their medical problems,” sheriff’s reports state.

Both mother and father were taken to Manatee Memorial Hospital for a medical evaluation before being taken to the Manatee County jail on child neglect charges. Zeinah Gollsneider also faces a charge of marijuana possession after a small bag of the drug fell out of her pants during the medical evaluation, according to sheriff’s reports.

Zeinah Gollsneider was the subject of a story in the Bradenton Herald on Tuesday after she reported her daughter may have saved her life after she hit her head during a seizure last week.

She said her daughter, Kadynce, ran to nearby Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School for help when her mother fell and sought help on her own from a groundskeeper at the school.

The girl was placed with relatives after her parents' arrests.

This story was originally published November 17, 2009 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Manatee couple faces child neglect charges."