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A mother is facing child neglect charges after letting her son to walk to a local park alone.

Nicole Gainey says her 7-year old son, Domnic, is old enough to walk to the park alone during the day.

It’s a half-mile from their home in St. Lucie, Florida – about a 10 minute walk.

She says he also has a cellphone in case of emergency.

But a police officer brought Dominic home Saturday afternoon and arrested his mother.

The police report said it was because Dominic was unsupervised and that numerous sex offenders live in the area.

Nicole says she plans to fight the charges but she won’t let Dominic go to the park alone anymore because  she’s afraid she’ll be arrested again.

The State’s Attorney’s office says there is no law that says exactly how old a child has to be before they can go somewhere unsupervised.

It’s done on a case-by-case basis.