AUGUSTA — A woman whose 3-year-old daughter was the subject of an Amber Alert last October pleaded no contest on Tuesday to a charge of child endangerment and was sentenced to 48 hours in jail.
Karen Lea, 41, of Augusta, entered the plea at the Capital Judicial Center. She was accompanied by her attorney, Matthew Morgan.
Justice Daniel Billings told her the finding would be guilty, and he imposed the sentence that was recommended by Morgan and the prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh.
There was no reference to the Amber Alert — which is sent out by law enforcement agencies when they believe a child might have been abducted. The alert can be sent via cellphone and was sent out about 3:25 p.m. on Oct. 4, 2016, when Lenore Wilson, 3, was reported missing after Augusta Fire and Rescue personnel responded to a Sewall Street address for a medical emergency.
There were conflicting reports about the nature of the medical emergency although there were indications that a person at the address had overdosed.
The girl was believed to be with another couple and was then dropped off that night at the Augusta Police Station by someone else. Once the girl was returned, the Amber Alert was canceled.
For most of the day, Wilson was believed to be with Fatima L. Gissentaner, 26, who is from New York. Gissentaner had been at the residence when a rescue crew was sent to respond to the medical emergency, police said.
Police said the girl was familiar with Gissentaner and Gissentaner’s boyfriend, whom police identified only as “Dollar.” Gissentaner occasionally cared for the child, police said.
Lea is to begin serving her sentence on Friday.
Since the Amber Alert program began in 1996, the system has been used on just one other occasion in Maine — in November 2009, when a Sanford girl, Haley Trayham, was taken away by her father and later found unharmed in New Hampshire, said Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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