Two New Hampshire mothers were arrested Monday, September 19, after a police officer found them highly intoxicated at the Mall at Rockingham Park in Salem, New Hampshire. According to a press release from the Salem Police Department obtained by Us Weekly, Baylie Lecolst and Amber Giordano were “barely able to stand, let alone care for the infants.”
The release also noted that both women “admitted to having consumed alcohol.”
Lecolst, 22, was discovered lying in a filthy parking-lot puddle holding her 4-month-old son above her head while Giordano watched on. “That puddle was filled with water and motor vehicle fluids,” Captain Joel Dolan tells Us Weekly.
Both Lecolst and Giordano, 24, were equally uncooperative during the booking process, which took four hours, according to law enforcement. “This is something that should have taken 45 minutes, tops,” Dolan tells Us. “But they wouldn’t tell us where they lived. They wouldn’t give us phone numbers of sober adults to come pick them up. They were giving addresses in town that didn’t exist.”
At one point, Dolan says one of the moms tried to breast-feed her child. “We immediately ordered her to stop,” he tells Us. Per the Mayo Clinic, “there’s no level alcohol in breast milk that’s considered safe for a baby to drink.”
The babies were eventually released into the custody of Lecolst’s and Giordano’s parents. The women were charged with misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Both were released on bail and are scheduled back in court on October 31.
“They made some very poor decisions and put two infants in that much danger,” Dolan tells Us. “They could barely take care of themselves at that point, let alone care for two innocent infants.”
