ROCKLAND, Maine — A 26-year-old Camden man was sentenced Monday to 90 days in jail for leaving a hospital with his infant before the baby could be checked for injuries after a car crash.
Benjamin Rankin pleaded guilty in Knox County Unified Court to endangering the welfare of a child and disorderly conduct. He also admitted to violating his probation. Judge Patricia Worth accepted an agreement worked out between Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Baroody and defense attorney Roger Hurley.
The charges stem from a series of incidents on the evening of June 12. Rankin and three children were passengers in a car driven by Amanda M. Rankin, 28, of Camden. The Jeep was reported to police as driving erratically before it veered to the right, struck a guardrail and then crossed the center line and hit the opposing guardrail, flipping “head over head” before landing on its wheels in the woods, according to police.
The five occupants of the vehicle were taken to Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport. Benjamin Rankin left on foot with the infant before the hospital staff could check the child out for injuries. He was found in back of a convenience store across from the entrance to the hospital. He initially resisted police efforts to return the child to the hospital.
When he returned to the hospital, he was asked to give a urine test after police learned he was on probation. He began yelling in the emergency room to the point that he was arrested. He was accused of disorderly conduct and later endangering the welfare of the infant.
Worth told Rankin that the baby could have had injuries and that is why he should not have left with the child. The judge also chastised the Camden man for causing a disruption in the emergency room where there are people already stressed and making their situations worse.
Amanda Rankin was charged July 9 with criminal operating under the influence and endangering the welfare of a child as a result of the crash.