EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA

Merrimack Valley

Mom who left kids in crashed car held without bail

By Yadira Betances and Jill Harmacinski, Staff writers
The Eagle-Tribune
Published: October 23, 2007

LAWRENCE — Friday night, when Misty Maciejewski crashed her car in Andover, ran into the woods and left her children stranded, it was the second time she was charged with driving drunk while one of her kids was in the car.

In September 2004, Maciejewski was arrested in Londonderry, N.H., and charged with child endangerment for driving her 6-day-old daughter around while she was drunk. She was convicted in October 2005.

In the two years since, Maciejewski, 27, has failed to enter an “intensive outpatient substance abuse

program” as ordered by a New Hampshire judge. She also moved from Londonderry to Massachusetts without notifying her probation officer and failed to keep numerous appointments with the officer.

Yesterday, wiping her eyes with a white handkerchief and sobbing uncontrollably, Maciejewski was in Lawrence District Court facing more child endangerment and drunken-driving charges.

Friday night, police said, she crashed her Nissan Maxima into a wooded area near an Andover restaurant. After hitting a tree, she ran from the car, leaving her 3-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son alone inside the car during a torrential downpour.

Before her arraignment yesterday, Maciejewski, formerly of 101-B Mammoth Road, Londonderry, was seen by psychologist Alexandra Weida, who told Judge Thomas Brennan, that Maciejewski had a “long-term history of alcohol abuse.”

Maciejewski, whose most recent previous address is 83 Broadway, Apt. 3, Haverhill, hid behind her court-appointed lawyer, John Fraser, and when Judge Brennan ordered Maciejewski held without bail, she sobbed loudly enough to be heard across the courtroom.

In addition to drunken-driving and child endangerment charges from Friday night, Maciejewski also was wanted on a fugitive warrant out of New Hampshire. Probation officer Christopher Regan applied for a warrant for her arrest after he said Maciejewski repeatedly violated the terms of her probation and blew off court-ordered appointments.

In October 2005, Maciejewski was sentenced to a year in jail, with all but 60 days suspended, and one year of probation, for her conviction of child endangerment.

But by December 2006, a little over a year after she was convicted, Maciejewski was found in violation of her probation because she had police contact, was disorderly and was using alcohol, according to Regan’s report.

A New Hampshire judge extended her probation a year, ordered her to undergo alcohol treatment and attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

But last May, she was found in violation of probation again and was sentenced to a year in jail. The sentence, however, was suspended until Dec. 21, 2007, and Maciejewski was again ordered by the court to undergo alcohol treatment.

Over the next five months, she continued to blow off meetings with her probation officer. And when the officer visited her Londonderry apartment last June, he “could see all the possessions in the home had been removed,” according to court papers.

Later, in a telephone conversation, she told him she’d moved to Andover.

“She has been given numerous opportunities to get treatment instead of serving time in the house of corrections,” Regan wrote. “However, she has now absconded and a period of incarceration is warranted.”

Friday night, Maciejewski ate dinner with her two children and drank two martinis at the Ninety Nine Restaurant on Lowell Street in Andover. She started to act erratically and left the restaurant without paying, according to police reports.

A manager confronted Maciejewski in the parking lot about her bill. She told him she would “give him the money for the bill behind the restaurant,” according to a police report.

But instead of paying him, she drove away, hitting two parked cars while backing out of her parking space. Shortly before 8 p.m., she crashed her car in the woods off Haggetts Pond Road. Leaving her children alone in the car, Maciejewski ran from the car and tried to hide under a pile of leaves, police said.

Patrolman Michael Connor, and his canine Niko, tracked Maciejewski 75 yards into the woods. The dog found Maciejewski “covered with leaves” and sat down next to her. Maciejewski, who was barefoot, was handcuffed and led out of the woods, according to a police report.

When Maciejewski turned her head toward one officer he said, “I smelled a heavy odor of alcohol.”

“She was also yelling and screaming at us and her speech was very thick-tongued,” Patrolman Edward Guy wrote in his report.

Highly agitated and uncooperative, Maciejewski refused to submit to a blood-alcohol test, according to police reports.

Andover police charged Maciejewski with drunken driving, third offense, larceny of property under $250, driving without a license, leaving the scene of a property damage accident, reckless behavior and child endangerment.

Her children were taken to Saints Memorial Hospital in Lowell and later released to the custody of the boy’s father. And because the children were placed in danger, police filed verbal and written reports with the state’s Department of Social Services. Such reports are required by law.

Maciejewski is scheduled to return to Lawrence District Court on Nov. 21.

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