A Wheaton woman was allowed Tuesday to see and hold her 7-week-old son for the first time since she allegedly abandoned him in a neighbor's backyard shortly after his birth.Nunu Sung's reunion with the infant, named Joshua by hospital caregivers, took place in a conference room at the DuPage County Courthouse in Wheaton. Sung, 24, held and hugged the baby for about five minutes, under the supervision of a guardian appointed by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, officials said.
Earlier in Juvenile Court, DuPage County Judge C. Stanley Austin granted Sung visitation rights to see the boy, provided the circumstances are approved by DCFS.
Sung is charged with child endangerment and obstruction of justice after allegedly lying to Wheaton police about the birth of the child. She has been out of the DuPage County Jail on $50,000 bail for several weeks.
After her arrest, Sung told police she had no emotional attachment to the child, prosecutors said. But her attorneys have said several times since that she has a desire to see her son, who is now in a foster home.
"Hopefully this is the first step of many" visits, Assistant Public Defender Jeff York said. "She wants to see her son."
Assistant State's Atty. Augusta Clarke told the judge Tuesday that repeated efforts to contact the Texas man that Sung claims is the father have been fruitless.
Austin ordered that the man have no contact with the child, unless a judge approves it.
Austin also was told that a comprehensive mental health examination of Sung hasn't been completed.
Also Tuesday, DuPage County Judge Blanche Hill Fawell, a criminal court judge, rejected prosecutors' attempt to have Sung's bail increased to $100,000 from $50,000 and for her to be placed on home confinement.
Prosecutors said she tampered with her electronic ankle bracelet, but Sung denied the claim.
Joshua was found June 12 unclothed behind bushes outside a garage in the 800 block of East Michigan Street, steps from the apartment complex in which Sung, an immigrant from Myanmar, lived with her cousin, prosecutors said. The baby was found by neighbors.
Relatives reported her missing after she failed to return from a walk late June 11. Wheaton police found her in her apartment cleaning herself and her clothes when they investigated the incident June 12, officials said.
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