Woman Found With Baby on Hill Denies Endangerment Charge

A homeless woman whose newborn infant was found shivering next to her on a hillside in Thousand Oaks last week pleaded not guilty Monday to a charge of felony child endangerment.

But some spectators at Maria Haulica’s arraignment questioned why she was jailed and separated from her baby instead of being offered help from social services.

“Nobody’s tax dollars are being well-spent by incarcerating this woman,” said Hope Colt-Mette, a Thousand Oaks woman who said she is a leader of the La Leche League, a breast-feeding support group. “How is she a threat? Is she going to have another baby on a hillside?”

Haulica, 36, was arrested early Thursday after paramedics and sheriff’s deputies found her and the newborn girl on a rocky ledge in Thousand Oaks. The 5-hours-old baby, wrapped in a T-shirt, was blue from cold and might have died if she had not been taken immediately to a hospital, investigators said.

The infant’s father summoned paramedics to Haulica’s campsite shortly before the birth, investigators said. She denied that she was in labor and refused to accept the father’s offer of shelter, saying she preferred to stay outdoors, they said.

The father returned to the campsite several hours later and found the shivering newborn baby lying next to its sleeping mother and asked paramedics to come back.

Colt-Mette applauded paramedics and deputies for rescuing the baby.

“They’re surely heroes in that sense,” she said. But instead of taking the mother to jail, she said, deputies should have sought help from social workers or mental health specialists, if warranted.

“If there’s mental illness, then try to give her at least some visitation with the baby, for her own sanity,” Colt-Mette said. She said she is not aware that Haulica suffers from any mental illness. But, she said, “if you’re mentally ill, having your baby whisked away from you could only make it worse.”

The baby girl has been placed in foster care supervised by the Ventura County Public Social Services Agency. Agency officials familiar with the case could not be reached for comment Monday.

Typically, however, the agency takes custody of children who are deemed to be in danger until a Superior Court judge determines what should happen to the child, according to Carol Vasina, a program assistant at the agency. If the normal routine is followed, that hearing will probably occur this week, she said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Patrice Davis-Koenig said prosecutors had no role in determining what happened to the infant. She said there was ample evidence to charge Haulica with endangering her child.

“Evidently the mother had no plan to get care for her child,” Davis-Koenig said. She said it appeared to be a crime of neglect rather than an intentional decision to harm the child. Child endangerment carries a maximum possible term of six years in prison.

After Haulica entered the not-guilty plea Monday, Municipal Court Judge Bruce A. Clark scheduled a preliminary hearing for Dec. 8. She remains in County Jail with bail set at $5,000.

Deputy Public Defender John H. Voigtsberger, who represented Haulica at her arraignment, said he does not expect the homeless woman to post bail. “I tend to doubt she’s got five grand sitting around somewhere,” he said.

A native of Romania, Haulica has roamed the Thousand Oaks area for several years, a sheriff’s investigator said. A court official said Monday that her only criminal record is a 1989 trespassing conviction for which she served three days in jail.

Colt-Mette and another breast-feeding advocate, Louise Wagner, said they decided to come to court after reading about the case in newspapers. They and a half-dozen friends plan to set up a fund to help Haulica and her child when they are reunited. Until then, they said, they hope officials will find some way to let Haulica spend time with her baby.

Before leaving the Hall of Justice, the women dropped off a breast pump at the public defender’s office in the hope that jail officials will allow Haulica to have it. The device allows women to continue nursing while separated from their infants.

“I would like to see her get some contact,” Colt-Mette said, adding that the period immediately after birth is crucial for parent-child bonding. “The longer they’re apart, the harder it will be,” she said.