Can I be charged with child endangerment? 5 Answers as of October 28, 2011

It would depend on the circumstances of what the reason for the raid is and what the conditions in the house are at the time of the raid.

Probably not. You, as a homeowner, do not have a duty to protect someone else's child unless you had an agreement to do so. Babysitters, lifeguards, and chaperones fall into this category.

If you rent a room in your home to a mother and child and the house was raided you can be charged with child endangerment if something illegal was found during the raid and you are responsible for the illegal items. This is extra true if the items were dangerous to a child. If it is the mother that is responsible for the items and you reasonably did not know they were in your home then you could not be convicted of child endangerment.

Whether you are charged is anyone's guess because that is up to the police and district attorney's office. Stranger things have happened. However, if you were charged, you would likely have a defense to any potential child endangerment charges if you did not have the care or custody of the child. An essential element of Penal Code section 273a(a) [Felony Child Endangerment] is that the Defendant had the "care or custody" of the child. Case law has defined "care or custody of the child" as follows: "the terms care or custody do not imply a familial relationship but only a willingness to assume duties correspondent to the role of a caregiver." (People v. Cochran (1988) 62 Cal. App. 4th 826, 832.) So in other words, if you have not assumed any duties correspondent to the role of a caregiver, and you have only rented a room to these people, then you will be likely to succeed in a defense against any potential child endangerment charges, should you be charged.

Any can be charged with just about anything, the question really is can the prosecutor prove a case. There is not enough info to give you a good answer but its is certainly possible.