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NANTICOKE — A Mountain Top-area couple were arraigned Wednesday on combined 22 misdemeanor counts of child endangerment for allegedly leaving two children locked in a car on numerous occasions.
Molly Kay O’Neill, 35, was charged with 21 counts, and her partner, Daniel Johnson, 36, was charged with one count. Both O’Neill and Johnson are from Valley Stream Park in Dorrance.
O’Neill wept visibly as the charges were read in court.
Court records show the charges stem from an investigation that began when Nanticoke police were alerted on June 29 that O’Neill’s 11-year-old son and 5-month-old daughter locked in a car in the parking lot of Nanticoke Fitness on West Main Street.
A police affidavit says O’Neill’s son, who has autism, was playing with an iPad and the infant was sleeping when officers opened the car. Officers were able to locate O’Neill inside the gym, and learned she had left both children unattended in the car on about a dozen prior occasions, once for almost two hours
According to the affidavit, Johnson joined O’Neill at the gym on one of those occasions.
Magesterial District Judge Donald Whittaker released O’Neill and Johnson on $25,000 unsecured bail each, and allowed the couple to have custody of the children while Child Protective Services conduct an investigation.
Both O’Neill and Johnson are scheduled for preliminary hearings at 1 p.m. Sept. 7 in front of Whittaker.