The Westbrook woman who was watching over a 3-year-old boy when he drowned last year at Koala Child Kare pleaded guilty to reckless conduct Tuesday morning.
Patricia Lobley, 63, was charged with the maximum fine of $2,000 as part of a plea bargain with Deputy Attorney General William Stokes.
Stokes said Tuesday he agonized over the case and looked into a manslaughter charge, but decided, instead, to work with Lobley’s attorney, Daniel Kelly of Springfield, Mass., to reach a plea bargain.
“I don’t think anyone had any desire to put this woman in jail,” he said about both himself and the mother of 3-year-old Andrew Thurston, who drowned on March 26, 2007.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services determined in April 2007 that Thurston’s drowning was the result of negligency by Lobley, and that the day care facility was in violation of state regulations.
Thurston drowned while Lobley, the day care center’s swim instructor, was attending four other children in the pool. According to an investigation by Westbrook police and the Department of Health and Human Services, Lobley allowed the five children to swim after they had taken off flotation devices. Thurston was allowed to enter the pool holding onto a flotation device. The boy entered the other side of the pool behind Lobley, who lost track of him, and drowned.
“She made a very bad judgment. It was more than negligence,” Stokes said, which was why he didn’t want to drop the case altogether. He said he wanted there to be some recognition that Lobley’s actions constituted criminal conduct. She pleaded guilty to a Class D crime.
However, he said, based on Lobley’s clean criminal record, jail time didn’t seem appropriate.
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