Day-Care Operator Faces 4 Years : Reseda: Five felony counts of child endangerment are filed. Police say they found a marijuana plant and a loaded rifle in her home.

The district attorney’s office on Friday filed felony child endangerment charges against the operator of a Reseda day-care center where police found an eight-foot-high marijuana plant and a loaded gun within reach of children.

Kim Elaine McIntyre, 28, who operated the day-care center in her home in the 19500 block of Vanowen Street, was charged with five counts of child endangerment--one for each of the children she was caring for at the time of her arrest.

McIntyre was also charged with one felony count of cultivating marijuana, said James A. Baker, chief filing deputy in the district attorney’s Van Nuys office.

McIntyre, who is free on $5,000 bail, is scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 1, Baker said. If convicted, the woman would face a maximum sentence of four years, Baker said.

McIntyre was arrested Tuesday after Los Angeles police received an anonymous tip that marijuana was being grown at the house. Detectives saw an eight-foot-tall marijuana plant extending over a back-yard fence next to children’s toys and obtained a search warrant, police said.

McIntyre told police that she was growing the marijuana to help cut down on her live-in boyfriend’s drug expenses, Baker said. Police quoted McIntyre as saying she put the marijuana in brownies and cookies.

The boyfriend, Michael Cardenas, 30, was not at home when police searched the house Tuesday, but he was arrested Wednesday night on suspicion of cultivating marijuana. He has not yet been charged, Baker said.

In addition to the marijuana plant, police found about five ounces of the drug inside the house and a loaded rifle in an unlocked bedroom, Baker said.

Child endangerment charges were not filed in connection with two other children who were present in the home with their mother and in connection with McIntyre’s 7-year-old daughter, who has been placed in the care of a friend of McIntyre’s, Baker said. Charges on behalf of those children would have been misdemeanors and would have added little to the case, according to a prosecutor.

The state Department of Social Services, which licenses day-care centers, revoked McIntyre’s permission to operate the day-care center after police complained. McIntyre can request an administrative hearing to appeal the license suspension.