Maine Mom Arrested On Drug Charges After Child Wanders Away From Apartment

ROCKLAND, Maine (CBS) -- A Rockland woman was arrested twice on drug charges over the weekend after police said her three-year-old son wandered out of her apartment and was found sitting in a drainage ditch covered in nail polish.

Mandy Dennison, 27, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of unlawful possession of scheduled drugs, and violating conditions of release.

Police responded to a call on Rankin Street in Rockland around 6:18 p.m. Saturday after a citizen reported finding a young boy lying in a drainage ditch. The boy was found with pink nail polish on several parts of his skin and without anybody around. The child was unable to tell the officer where he lived--only that he had been watching Scooby Doo at home.

The officer checked two nearby apartment complexes and found one apartment door open with Scooby Doo playing on the TV inside, and pink nail polish on the floor. When nobody responded to the officer's knocks, he entered to find the boy's mother, Dennison, asleep on a mattress in the living room, and was able to wake her after several attempts.

Police said Dennison appeared to be under the influence of drugs, and was found to have clonazepam which had not been prescribed to her. She was arrested and taken to Knox County Jail, and the boy's grandmother picked him up.

The following day, when an officer checked in on Dennison as part of the requirements of her release from police custody, she was found with a different medication she had not been prescribed and arrested again.

Dennison is awaiting arraignment.