CNN logo WORLD navbar Infoseek/Big Yellow Pathfinder/Warner Bros World banner Alan Greenspan. Is he the man with the golden touch? rule usa.nightmare --From Danish newspaper Ekstrabladet DENMARK: U.S. OFFICIALS OVER-REACTED OVER BABY May 17, 1997 Web posted at: 1:33 p.m. EDT (1733 GMT) restaurant COPENHAGEN, Denmark (Reuter) -- Denmark's foreign minister said Saturday that a Danish mother had been foolish to leave her baby daughter outside a New York restaurant, but U.S. authorities who jailed her for two days had over-reacted. Danish newspapers ran front-page pictures of actress Annette Sorensen and 14-month-old daughter Liv after a New York City judge Friday dropped criminal charges against the mother. "USA Nightmare over - Free," Ekstrabladet's headline read."We Won," crowed rival tabloid B.T. reunion Sorensen was jailed for two days last weekend and her baby put into foster care for four days. She had left Liv parked in a stroller outside a restaurant while she and the child's American father were having a drink and watching her through the window. "It was rash of the mother to leave her child in an American city. It is not clever but is perhaps excusable because she was not really aware of the danger," Foreign Minister Niels Helveg Petersen told B.T. "But the American authorities over-reacted because this was not a case of a mother who could be accused of neglecting her child, it's completely out of proportion," he added. Ekstrabladet quoted Sorensen, 30, as saying that she bore no animosity over the affair. denmark "I'm not quite myself again yet, but I am not bitter toward the United States (although) I honestly can't say if I will ever come back again," she told the paper, holding Liv in her arms, at a champagne celebration in New York's Danish Seamen's Church. Under terms of the deal reached before Judge Michael Gross by her attorney, the Manhattan District Attorney and the Danish Consulate, the criminal charges of endangering the welfare of a child were dismissed and the case will be closed for good in six months. "It is our belief that this was a clash of cultures and a lack of understanding," her attorney Todd Barnet said. The mother's lawyers said that she did not think twice about leaving the child outside the restaurant because it was common practice in Copenhagen. Sorensen still must appear in Family Court Wednesday but B.T. quoted a lawyer for the Danish Consulate in New York, Peter Hessellund-Jensen, as saying that he foresaw no problems. "I am convinced that the hearing is only a formality," he said. Sorensen's attorney says she has a plane ticket to leave the United States May 27. She had been in the country less than 48 hours when her daughter was taken from her. Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. rule Related stories: * Charges against Danish mother effectively dropped - May 16, 1997 * Women charged with leaving baby outside while dining in restaurant - May 13, 1997 * New York returns baby to Danish mother - May 13, 1997 rule Message Boards Sound off on our message boards Tell us what you think! You said it... [INLINE] Alan Greenspan. Is he the man with the golden touch? rule To the top © 1997 Cable News Network, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you.