SKOWHEGAN — A local woman who was arrested July 31 after police found her lying unconscious next to a naked infant in an apartment filthy with cat feces, vomit, empty prescription bottles and beer cans is back in jail.

Stephanie Freeman, 28, listed by the courts now as a transient, was arrested by Skowhegan police just after 5:30 a.m. Tuesday on a charge of failure to appear in court. She also was arrested on a bail revocation and on a warrant charging unsworn falsification, meaning that she allegedly made a written false statement knowing that the statement was not true.

In handwritten letters to the court in Skowhegan, Freeman claims to have three children and also claims to have been harassed by police and falsely charged with crimes that led her to be charged with violating the conditions of release and therefore unable to look after her children.

The district attorney’s office has objected to the admission of the letters, according to court documents. The unsworn falsification is alleged to have taken place Sept. 22. Freeman is scheduled to appear Wednesday in court on that charge.

She was to have appeared Monday at the Somerset County Jail to begin serving time after her conviction on the July charge of endangering the welfare of a child. She originally was sentenced to 180 days in jail, with all but seven days suspended and one year of probation; but after violating the conditions of release, she was given 180 days straight time with none of it suspended.

The jail sentence was stayed, or postponed, until Monday.

A probation revocation form was put into Freeman’s file Oct. 16 by a community corrections officer on three counts of new criminal conduct. The corrections officer cites the new criminal charges in the revocation form: refusing to sign an issued summons, refusing to submit to arrest and running from police and testing positive for cannabis and Suboxone, according to court documents.

The arrests all occurred in October while Freeman was on probation. The conditions of her release included abstaining from illegal drugs or alcohol.

Freeman was arrested in early July for failure to appear on another charge. She was arrested again in September on the same charge and for writing a bad check in August.

Explaining the incident involving endangering the welfare of a child in late July, Skowhegan police Chief David Bucknam said officers were sent to an apartment house on Waterville Road after a noise complaint. Officers Brian Gardiner and Jacob Boudreau went there and could hear music blaring from the apartment, he said. Unable to get the attention of anyone in the apartment, the officers looked in through an open window on the side of the building and saw “a small infant with no clothes on and an adult female in the fetal position” lying on the floor, according to the chief.

After the officers saw the debris scattered around the apartment and “fearing for the welfare of the residents,” they climbed through the window and tried to wake up the woman, later identified as Freeman, Bucknam said.

“The infant child woke, but they were unable to keep the female awake due to her level of intoxication,” Bucknam said. “DHHS and medical units were called to the scene to assist.”

Once inside the apartment, the officers also noticed that there was no electrical power in the apartment and that someone had used an extension cord from a neighboring apartment to play a radio. Inside the refrigerator the officers found a half-empty 30-pack of beer and an old package of cheese, but no other food.

Bucknam said this week that Freeman’s child is staying with a family member.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

dharlow@centralmaine.com

Twitter:@Doug_Harlow

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