A Middletown mother is facing charges after her young children wandered out of the house while slept on the couch last week, according to police, who said it's not the first time she left her kids unattended.
Middletown police received a call around 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday reporting toddler-age children running around outside of 55 Tryon Street in Middletown.
The caller told police the front door was wide open and their mother was passed out on the sofa and that similar incidents had happened before.
Officers arrived to find two kids, ages 2 and 4, on their front step and saw their mother, Lea Miceli, 34, asleep on the couch through the open door, police said.
Police went inside the house and one of the officers told Miceli to wake up three times before she did. When Miceli woke up, police heard her say, "Not this again."
One of the officers took her children in the other room while the other officer questioned her. Miceli had difficulty answering questions as simple as her name and birth date, police said. Her demeanor was sluggish and confused, according to police.
No other adults were home. Police said they noticed several safety risks to the children, including open and unlocked windows without screens and a live electrical wire plugged into the wall posing a fire hazard.
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One open window on the first-floor had a table pushed up against it, which the 2-year-old climbed onto while officers were there. Police said the drop from the window to the ground was 4 feet.
Police called the Department of Children and Families and the children's father, who took custody of them.
Miceli was charged with two counts of risk of injury to a minor in connection with the case from this month, along with two additional counts connected to an incident July 8, when she had left her children unattended,
Her bond was set at $25,000 in each arrest. Miceli is scheduled to appear in Middletown Superior Court on Aug. 21.
Middletown police said Miceli has a history of leaving her children unsupervised. On Oct. 8 of last year, police investigated when Miceli left one of her kids alone in a car. Then, on April 29 of this year police investigated a report that her kids were outside by themselves. Police previously arrested Miceli at her home on June 3 after police found her children unsupervised.
