At her bail hearing yesterday, Judge Philip Maenza agreed to cut Sarah Haines' bail from $100,000 to $10,000. Haines has been charged with second-degree child endangerment after leaving her 12-year-old daughter home alone for a week with $10 and three dogs. Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Meg Rodriguez agreed with the bail reduction, but said the state would need help in assuring Haines would return for future proceedings. She told the court, “This is a defendant who recklessly abandoned her child and abdicated her parental responsibility,” and noted there were “prior incidents where this defendant left the child home with other people (to care for the girl) and left the area for long periods of time."
Haines left her home in Mount Olive, NJ to fly to Idaho and marry her boyfriend, leaving a friend to check in on her daughter. Though the friend checked on her three times, an affidavit says the girl “cared for herself and the family dogs while left alone, and had been afraid to shower because she was scared since the front door unlocks itself."
Defense attorney Thomas Fischer said Haines is unlikely to leave again, as she has family in the area. While authorities originally believed she flew to Washington, Fischer said she went to Idaho to marry her boyfriend, who apparently works on the road. Haines was initially supposed to be gone for three days, but said her return flight was canceled and she was forced to take a bus home.
