SKOWHEGAN — A Skowhegan mother of two has been sentenced to 180 days in jail after admitting she violated her probation by being drunk while pushing her toddler in a stroller through traffic.
Hiedi Anne McDonald, 39, who has three previous drunken driving convictions in Maine, was seen June 4 weaving with the baby carriage in and out of the traffic lane, first on Chandler Street and then later on North Avenue, according to Skowhegan police.
Police said she registered a .228 — nearly three times the legal limit — on an Intoxilyzer test at the police station and was arrested on a charge of endangering the welfare of a child and on a probation violation.
McDonald, of Butler Street, was also sentenced to serve 175 days in jail on the child endangerment charge. That sentence is to run concurrently to the 180 days for the probation violation.
In a court affidavit, probation officer John Lorenzen said he got a call from Skowhegan police Officer Jason Gayne who told him McDonald was “wasted and pushing her child down the road in a carriage.”
Gayne and Officer Ryan Dinsmore found McDonald “all dirty and cut up” from falling down drunk on her walk with the toddler, police Chief Ted Blais said. Gayne said McDonald picked the child up and nearly dropped him and “almost fell over on top of him.”
McDonald was tested and arrested.
She made an appearance in court Monday where she pleaded guilty to both charges. Court paperwork indicates McDonald has two children who live with her. The child in the stroller was her son, not yet 2 years old. Blais said McDonald called her grandmother to take the child. She is to have no contact with the child unless permitted by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Attorney Peter Barnett, of Bingham, who represented McDonald as the court appointed lawyer of the day, said he could not discuss the status of the children.
According to the website of Hospice Volunteers of Somerset County, McDonald was an administrative assistant at the agency. Court documents say McDonald no longer is employed.
McDonald is on probation for felony operating under the influence in Skowhegan in May 2013. She pleaded guilty to the charge in November and was sentenced to three years in the Department of Corrections, with all but 30 days suspended and two years probation.
The charge was elevated to a felony because of two previous operating under the influence convictions in 2009 in Belfast District Court and Rockland District Court, according to court records. Her driver’s license was suspended for six years.
Her probation is to continue once she has served the imposed jail time.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter: @Doug_Harlow
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