By Julie Manganis
DANVERS — A New Hampshire mom is facing a string of charges after police say she was driving while high on drugs, with her 2-year-old daughter sitting unrestrained in the passenger seat Tuesday afternoon.
Cindy Abkarian, 26, of Seabrook pleaded not guilty yesterday in Salem District Court to child endangerment, driving while under the influence of drugs, possession of a class C substance (Klonopin) and failing to have her child in a car seat, as well as several motor vehicle and traffic charges. She has been released on $250 bail.
State police fielded a series of calls from other drivers on Interstate 95 south in Danvers around 3 p.m. Tuesday, reporting a woman driving a white van all over the road, with a young child sitting in the front seat.
Trooper Scott Grimes stationed himself in the area near Exit 50 (which leads to Route 1) and saw her coming, weaving back and forth between the first and second lanes, Grimes wrote in a report.
Grimes pulled out and stopped the van just before the next exit at Centre Street.
Grimes immediately noticed the little girl, who will turn 2 next month, sitting in the passenger seat, not even wearing a seat belt (children are required to sit in a car seat up to the age of 8). Abkarian told police the little girl kept unbuckling herself.
A "nervous and talkative" Abkarian, who had large red circles under her eyes, constricted pupils and needle marks on her arms, admitted to having used methadone, a synthetic opiate used for treatment of heroin addiction, and Klonopin, a tranquilizer.
"Why? I can't take methadone and drive?" she allegedly asked. "People drive all the time on methadone."
After failing a series of field sobriety tests, police arrested her. She began crying and admitted that she was "a junkie" who needs help.
Meanwhile, another trooper was keeping an eye on the child in the van when he noticed a baggie filled with pills sitting on top of Abkarian's open purse.
Police also charged her for driving the uninspected van with a cracked windshield; the van is owned by her boyfriend, Michael Solazzo of Revere.
State police also contacted the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, as well as the New Hampshire Bureau of Child Protection.
Abkarian is due back in court on Oct. 7.
