The mother who had to be rescued with her two children over the weekend after driving her car into a pond in Hancock County was on her way back from a methadone clinic in Bangor and had been drinking, police said Monday.
Mandi Parker, 38, of Jonesboro, crashed into Fox Pond on Saturday afternoon, and she and her two children – 2-month-old Tanner Kjenstad and 3-year-old Georgia Parker – were rescued from the sinking car by a fisherman.
“Parker was returning from Bangor’s methadone clinic, had a suspended driver’s license and had been drinking alcohol,” Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said in a news release.
Parker was charged with driving after suspension of her license. Additional charges could be filed after troopers complete their investigation, McCausland said.
Maine State Police said the car went off the road after Parker failed to negotiate a sharp curve on Route 182.
After she and the two children were treated at a hospital, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services took custody of the children.
Samantha Edwards, a DHHS spokeswoman, said she couldn’t comment on any action the department is taking with regard to Parker’s children. However, she said that in general, when children enter state custody the Office of Child and Family Services will work to place them in the care of a relative.
Parker has a lengthy criminal history, with convictions on roughly 24 misdemeanor charges from 1998 to 2007, according to the State Bureau of Identification. She also has numerous motor vehicle violations, including license suspensions and speeding.
Parker’s most recent driver’s license expired on June 11, 2011. She has been convicted twice since then of driving with a suspended license, according to Bureau of Motor Vehicles records.
It’s not clear whether Parker owns the car she was driving. There are no vehicles registered in Maine in her name, according to the bureau.
Parker’s criminal convictions include terrorizing, criminal mischief, numerous thefts, driving under the influence and unlawful drug possession, and she has multiple bail violations. Her longest jail sentence was for four months in 2007.
Parker also was the driver in two previous crashes, both in the town of Steuben in 2006. In one, she was charged with driving under the influence and later convicted. In the other crash, she swerved off the road to avoid hitting a deer, according to police accident reports.
The fisherman who rescued Parker and her children, 60-year-old Leonard Wallace, had gone to Fox Pond with his wife, Rosemary, and had been fishing about 15 minutes when Parker’s car flew inches past his head and into the pond, landing on its roof before righting itself several feet from shore.
Wallace said Sunday evening that he waded through frigid water to the rear passenger door and wedged his hand through a small opening at the top. He put his foot on the rear tire for leverage and was able to pull the door open.
He grabbed the 2-month-old and waded back to shore, handing the infant to his wife.
He then waded back to the car, which was filling fast with water. Parker and the 3-year-old were in the front seat and Parker couldn’t open the doors because the water was pressing in on them.
“She was more concerned about her kids than herself,” Wallace recalled. “She kept screaming at me: ‘Take my kids! Take my kids!’ ”
Wallace got partly into the back of the car and grabbed the front of the 3-year-old’s pajamas and Parker’s collar and pulled them both over the front seat and out the rear door to safety.
He and his wife took the family to their Pontiac Grand Am and wrapped them in blankets to keep them warm, while Parker’s car sank.
Authorities told Wallace the water temperature of the pond was about 48 degrees. Wallace, who is 6 foot 1, said the water was up to his armpits during the rescue.
The Wallaces said they tried to flag down two cars for help, but both drove past without stopping. Rosemary Wallace kept dialing 911 on her cellphone before a police dispatcher called her back several minutes later. Cellphone reception in that area is poor.
State police responded, along with two ambulances, and took Parker and her children to a hospital.
Fox Pond is in Township 10, on a remote stretch of Route 182 between Cherryfield and Ellsworth that winds past mountains, lakes and public lands.
The Wallaces said their trip to Fox Pond was the first time they had gone fishing this year.
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