ROCKLAND, Maine — A 22-year-old woman is free on bail after being arrested early Friday morning and charged with leaving her 2-year-old home alone while she spent the night at a friend’s house.

Destiny Barrett of Rockland was arrested shortly after 4:30 a.m. by Rockland police and charged with endangering the welfare of a child. She was taken to the Knox County Jail in Rockland and was released Friday morning after $750 in cash bail was paid.





Rockland Deputy Police Chief Wally Tower said the woman told officers she should not be arrested since no one had told her it was wrong to leave a child home alone.

According to police, the incident began when Jeffrey E. Dudley, 26, of Rockland was arrested shortly after 11 p.m. at the woman’s apartment for allegedly violating probation. Barrett was at the apartment at that time with the 2-year-old.

But less than a half hour after officers had left the residence, there were multiple calls made to police that Barrett had left the home without her child.

Officers responded and after interviewing witnesses, went into the apartment just before midnight and said they found the child alone in a bedroom. Officers contacted the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, and the child was placed with relatives. Barrett could not be located at that time.

Shortly after 4 a.m., however, as officers responded to an unrelated complaint at a neighboring apartment complex, they saw Barrett leaving a residence in that housing development. Officers stopped her, interviewed her and arrested her.