ITEM PHOTO BY GAYLA CAWLEY
Laci Kirk, right, with her attorney, Michael Phelan, is arraigned on a child endangerment charge in Salem Superior Court on Thursday.
By GAYLA CAWLEY
SALEM — Laci Kirk pleaded not guilty to a reckless endangerment of a child charge in Salem Superior Court on Thursday, nearly two years after her 4-month-old child was found unresponsive in a homeless shelter in Lynn, and later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Although the autopsy came back showing that her son, Charles Brand III, died of natural causes, Kirk, also known as Laci Brand, is charged with wanton or reckless endangerment of a child for her alleged inattention and reckless conduct while caring for him during his short life.
The Essex County grand jury had returned an indictment on the charge on Tuesday, and the Essex County District Attorney’s office released a statement the next day that Kirk was at-large and her whereabouts were unknown. She was located by authorities in Beverly and brought in for her arraignment on Thursday afternoon.
Kirk, 23, was ordered held on $15,000 bail by Salem Superior Court Judge Thomas Drechsler, who also set conditions that should she post that amount, she have no unsupervised conduct with children under 16, remain drug and alcohol free with random screens, and abide by a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew with a GPS monitor.
Assistant District Attorney Kim Faitella said police responded to Independence House, a homeless shelter at 555 Western Ave., on Sept. 26, 2015 after the infant had been found unresponsive in his crib by Kirk. She said the baby had a small amount of blood coming from his nose, and that shelter workers attempted to perform CPR before he was taken to North Shore Medical Center in Salem.
Police arrived at the hospital and spoke with Kirk, and noticed that she was unsteady on her feet and had difficulty walking, Faitella said. She said police could smell alcohol coming from Kirk’s breath, and that Kirk had initially denied having anything to drink, before acknowledging that at some point, she had two shots of rum. Her speech was also slurred, and she later indicated to Department of Children and Families (DCF) workers she had three shots of gin, along with a mixture of gin and Gatorade, Faitella said.
The child was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead, Faitella said.
Police executed a search warrant at the shelter that included Kirk’s room. Investigators saw that a portable crib that baby Charles had been sleeping in was cluttered with blankets, adult bathrobes, a stuffed animal, and there was a small amount of blood on the crib sheet, Faitella said.
Shelter workers and DCF workers had a discussion about the course of that day, regarding Kirk leaving the child alone. They discussed that Kirk had allegedly stated that she needs time to herself, and that it was unrealistic, cruel and inhumane to expect her to be with the child 24/7, as the baby was boring and she needed time to herself, Faitella said.
An investigation, conducted by State Police, revealed that during the course of Sept. 26, the day the baby was found unresponsive, Kirk had left the child largely unattended. Her husband, Charles Brand II, had left her a week before that day. She spent much of the day with another resident of the shelter, drinking and listening to music, Faitella said.
Faitella outlined past instances where Kirk also left baby Charles unattended during their time at the shelter, saying that it was a pattern that had been going on for a lengthy period of time. She said shelter workers noticed she spent much of her time downstairs, leaving her child unattended upstairs. On Aug. 26, shelter workers filed a report with DCF for lack of supervision, and filed another abuse and neglect report in September after an investigation was launched, she said.
Kirk was told that she needed to perform routine checks on her child and have a baby monitor on at all times when she wasn’t with him. It was learned that she would let her baby sleep on a bouncy chair on top of the bed. Shelter workers bought her a portable crib. Shelter workers and other residents noticed that she would often not have the baby monitor on, or would turn it down when Charles would cry, and neglect to check on him, Faitella said.
Shelter workers became alarmed at how often she would not check on her child while DCF was involved, and would repeatedly remind her to. At one point, shelter workers found the child unattended, drenched in sweat in a bouncy seat on top of the bed, Faitella said.
During police interviews with Kirk at the hospital and the next day, she reportedly gave conflicting statements on how often she checked on Charles during the day he was found unresponsive, and about how much she had to drink, Faitella said.
Michael Phelan, Kirk’s defense attorney, said his client was devastated by her baby’s death, and denies many of the allegations against her. He said the cause of death in the autopsy results was complications from pneumonia, a natural death, and that there was absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing.
Phelan said Kirk’s former husband, Charles Brand II, said she was a very good mother at times, and did carry around a baby monitor, checked on her son, and fed and changed him.
“I can think of nothing worse to happen to a parent than to have the death of a young child, especially Mr. Brand, who was only four months of age,” Phelan said. “She denies much of the allegations that the Commonwealth says … She is torn apart every day thinking about her child, and it bothers her, and has affected her life on a day-to-day basis.”
Kirk returns to court on Aug. 1 for a pretrial hearing.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.
