Mom who left infant in van feared arrest

BOISE – An Idaho mother who left her infant daughter alone in a van and fled after crashing says she feared being arrested for drunken driving.

“It probably makes no sense at all to anybody to just walk away from a baby, but not only was I drunk and was I confused and scared, but at the same time I knew when the police were coming that she could go to someone better,” Sherry Batt told Boise television station KTVB from the Ada County jail. “I knew when I got in that accident it was my third DUI and it was a felony.”

Batt, a 26-year-old mother of five, was arrested at her Boise home Sunday afternoon and charged with felony injury to a child, leaving the scene of an accident and driving without privileges. Her 7-week-old daughter, Savannah, was placed in state foster care.

The baby was discovered unhurt in her car seat by residents of the Boise neighborhood where Batt’s vehicle ran off the road and tore out a 30-foot-section of a wooden fence Sunday.

Batt’s preliminary hearing is scheduled in 4th District Court on Dec. 12.