Charge Withdrawn In Baby Stroller Case

A Family Court judge said Wednesday that he would accept the withdrawal of a child-neglect petition against the parents of a Danish baby who had been placed in foster care after she was found in a stroller outside an East Village restaurant where her parents were eating.

In a case that drew international attention and raised questions about police tactics here and child-rearing practices in Denmark, a lawyer for the Administration for Children’s Services told Judge Sheldon Rand that the children’s agency had found “no hint of abuse or neglect” by either parent.

The lawyer, Carl Hotnit, said the agency recommended withdrawing the neglect petition on the condition that the mother, Annette Sorensen, a 30-year-old Danish actress who was in New York on vacation, return home with her 14-month-old daughter, Liv Sorensen.

During the hearing Hotnit said the agency originally thought the child was at risk but concluded that the matter was an isolated incident. A lawyer for the child concurred with the agency’s recommendation.

Rand said he would act after receiving confirmation at a hearing next Wednesday that Sorensen and her child had returned to Denmark. Last Friday, a state judge dismissed a charge of endangering the welfare of a child against Sorensen, who was arrested with the baby’s father on May 10.

That charge and a count of disorderly conduct are still pending against the father, Exavier Wardlaw, 49, of Brooklyn. His lawyer, Ronald Kuby, called the charges against his client outrageous, saying that the police “ripped his baby out of her mother’s arms” when they arrested her and Wardlaw.