A 22-year-old Portland woman accused of leaving her 23-month-old daughter in a tent in a North Portland backyard pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment Monday morning.
A grand jury indicted Taylor Marie Marcus, who is also known as Taylor Kuhn, with two counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment, second-degree child neglect, recklessly endangering another person and unlawful possession of methamphetamine.
According to court documents, Portland police officers were dispatched at 3:30 a.m. on May 7 to the 9900 block of North James Street after a caller said a child could be heard crying and screaming from a nearby home's backyard.
An officer entered the backyard and announced his presence several times. When no adult responded, the officer removed the crying girl from the tent.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the girl was alone in the tent confined to a playpen. She was wearing thin pajamas and a urine-soaked diaper. She had no blanket and was shivering; the outside temperature was 45 degrees, police told prosecutors.
Officers brought the girl to their patrol car where the girl shivered for 15 minutes. Paramedics told police the girl was suffering from hypothermia and had low blood sugar. She was taken to Randall Children's Hospital for treatment and taken into care by Oregon Child Protective Services.
Officers found Marcus, the girl's mother, sleeping in a car outside the residence. She was bundled in a blanket and had a pipe used to smoke methamphetamine sticking out of her shirt, police said. The pipe was seized and later tested positive for methamphetamine, according to court documents.
Marcus, who repeatedly complained to officers that she was cold, at first said she had only left her daughter alone for an hour. She later told detectives she had put the girl to bed in the tent at 10 p.m. the night before.
Marcus has one prior drug-related conviction form 2011, according to court records.
Her next court date is June 29.
--Maxine Bernstein
--Stuart Tomlinson