NEWARK, N.J. — A deeply tanned New Jersey mother accused of causing skin burns to her young daughter by taking her into a tanning booth pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a child-endangerment charge, and the tanning salon’s owner appeared to corroborate her story.
Patricia Krentcil faces a second-degree child-endangerment charge. She is free on $2,500 cash bond.
She told reporters her daughter, who was 5 at the time of the alleged incident in mid-April, got sunburned by being outside on an unseasonably warm day. She said her daughter, however, had mentioned to school officials when she complained of itching that she had been to a tanning salon with her mother.
Krentcil has said her daughter was in the room at the salon but not in the stand-up tanning booth. The owner of City Tropics Salon in Nutley, who identified himself only as Anthony, said employees told him that the girl remained outside with her father and brother and didn’t go into the tanning booth.
