9/28/2012: Stark County, Illinois: The mother of 3-week-old Mia Thompson dumped her infant Thursday in a ditch in a remote area outside town, according to charges filed Friday morning.
Kendra Meaker, 19, of Toulon “willingly caused the life of (her daughter) to be endangered” by abandoning the baby alongside a rural road for nearly 12 hours, the charges allege. Further, she is accused of lying to police about the infant’s whereabouts while her daughter went unattended and without food or water between 8:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. Thursday.
Meaker was charged in Stark County Circuit Court Friday morning with obstruction of justice, a Class 4 felony punishable by one to three years in prison; and endangering the life or health of a child, a Class A misdemeanor carrying a maximum jail term of one year. Bond was set at $100,000, meaning she would have to post $10,000 to be released from custody. Her next court appearance is set for Oct. 12.
Mia was being cared for Friday at an unspecified hospital, while her 11-month-old sister, Mercedes, was with relatives, according to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Mia was reported missing in an Amber Alert on Thursday morning. Meaker told police she had stopped at the Toulon post office about 8:10 a.m. to mail a package and got out of the car, leaving behind Mia and Mercedes. Meaker told police that she had riven drove away from the post office and did not notice Mia was missing until later; Mercedes remained in the car.
Sheriff Jimmie Dison, testifying at Friday's court hearing, said he doubted Meaker’s story from the beginning, when she came to his office to file a report.
“I didn’t believe her” when she denied having done something with her baby, Dison said later outside court. But with no proof of his suspicions and with an infant missing, he had no choice but to request the Amber Alert.
“I had to,” Dison said. “What I believed didn’t matter.”
When questioned later by Illinois State Police and FBI investigators, Meaker eventually changed her story and admitted she had left the infant along a rural road, Dison said.
Meaker, wearing standard orange jail attire, said nothing during her brief court appearance Friday except to answer questions from Circuit Judge Stuart Borden determining whether she qualified for a public defender. She told him she had no job and no income.
Meaker has been living with her parents, Ken and Rita Meaker in Toulon, along with Mia and Mercedes, and Timothy Thompson, the father of both children.
Thompson and Ken Meaker were among several family members who attended the court hearing, but they did not comment except in a brief group statement read by a family spokeswoman.
“This has been a hellish 24 hours that our family has endured.” said Sandy Hollingsworth of Marseilles, a maternal aunt of the defendant and great-aunt of Mia.
According to charges filed Friday, Meaker drove outside Toulon to county roads 700 North and 900 East, where she took the girl from the car and lay her on roadside gravel.
Nearly a half-day later, during which time scores of volunteers and police combed the area, she was found by a pair of volunteer searchers who stopped in the remote site, got out of their vehicle and heard her wailing. the retrieved the baby and brought her to nearby emergency workers.
Stark County State’s Attorney James Owens declined to discuss the charges further, including Meaker’s motivation. He said he does not know if anyone else might be charged.
SOURCE: http://www.pjstar.com/
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