Sources: Dad of abandoned baby will turn himself in

BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA | rocco.parascandola@newsday.com

7:11 PM EST, March 3, 2008

Robin Carlson, Administrative Director of Emergency Service, holds the baby that was abandoned in a livery cab, during a press conference at St. John's Hospital in Queens on Thursday, February 28, 2008. (Freelance: Charles Eckert / February 29, 2008)

The father at the center of the sensational case of the 6-month-old baby girl abandoned at a Queens firehouse has told police he wants to turn himself in, Newsday has learned.

Carlos Rodas has spoken by telephone to detectives and says he feels he did nothing wrong by handing over his daughter, Daniella Perez, to cabbie Klever Sailema last Thursday, police sources said.

Rodas wants to surrender, he also told police, and his family is trying to arrange for that, possibly with the help of a lawyer, sources said.

Rodas is likely in the Bronx, sources said, though he has told detectives he is in Pennsylvania.

"Carlos, if you see , please turn yourself in," his sister, Maria Siavachay, 21, said yesterday at a news conference. "It's the best thing you can do."

The 27-year-old construction worker faces charges of endangering the welfare of a child, sources said, and he could be hit with statutory rape charges as well because Daniella's mother, Yelemer Perez, is only 14.

The headline-grabbing incident has taken several turns since it first broke.

At first, it looked simply like Sailema, acting quickly and honorably, had taken Daniella to Engine 289, in Corona, after a passenger in his car got out to make a phone call and never returned, leaving Daniella behind.

But in the first 24 hours there was but one phone tip to police, and some investigators in the case were having their doubts about Sailema's story, even as he was being lauded as a hero.

By Friday night, Sailema told police he had lied and that he had been dragged into the mess by his girlfriend -- Siavachay.

Sailema says Siavachay and Rodas told him the teen mother had left Rodas and that neither Rodas nor Siavachay felt comfortable going to authorities because they are illegal immigrants from Ecuador and because the mother is a minor.

"He was afraid that if they caught him with the child he would be arrested," the cabbie said during an interview at the Bronx office of his lawyer, Kevin Faga.

Sailema and Siavachay have been charged with criminal facilitation, and Sailema was also charged with falsely reporting an incident.

Neither suspect, Faga noted, wanted to see the child harmed.

"They never intended to break any laws," Faga said.

"I would like to apologize for making something up that didn't exist," the cabbie said. "My only purpose was to do the right thing and unfortunately I didn't do the right thing."

For now, at least, Daniella and her mom are in the custody of the Administration for Childrens Services. It appears the mother met Rodas while living in Maryland, where he worked in construction. Police here have been told the mother walked out on Rodas because he was abusive.

Daniel Edward Rosen contributed to this report.