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Medford woman gets 25 days in jail for neglecting toddler By CHRIS BRISTOL A Medford woman who passed out drunk while her 15-month-old girl played with a baby bottle full of cheap bourbon was sentenced to 25 days in jail Monday for child neglect. Brenda Lee Dagley, 38, told Jackson County Judge Dan Harris that she had been sober for more than a year when she relapsed last fall. The incident led state child welfare workers to seek court-ordered termination of her parental rights. "I'm ashamed of what happened," Dagley told the judge. "It was a big, ugly relapse and now I'm paying the price." Prosecutor Beth Heckert said Dagley drank so much bourbon whiskey on the afternoon of Oct. 28 that she passed out, leaving her two small boys and their baby half-sister unattended for hours. Her blood-alcohol level was .23 percent, nearly three times the limit considered too drunk to drive. Some of Dagley's neighbors in the 100 block of South Cottage Street knew what had happened that day and checked in on the situation but did not involve authorities, Heckert said. "We still don't know who put the whiskey in the baby's bottle," Heckert said. Not until the girl's father came over were the police called, and they were called then only because the father got into an argument with Dagley's neighbors, Heckert said. "He had called for a chat, and the boy who answered the phone just put it down without hanging it up," Heckert said. "The father could hear the girl crying in the background, which is why he came over. It was really a fluke." The incident was not Dagley's first brush with the law. Heckert said Dagley was once convicted of criminal mistreatment for failing to take one of the boys to the hospital when an older half-sister drew him a scalding-hot bath, burning his feet. In court Monday, public defender Vance Waliser argued against jail time for Dagley, saying she has been undergoing intensive counseling for alcoholism and has a part-time job with a construction company. "Putting her in jail would be counter-productive," Waliser said. The girl is now living with her father. The boys are staying with a foster mother who is a friend of Dagley's and is seeking an "open adoption," meaning Dagley could get visitation rights. "I willingly gave up the rights to my children," Dagley told the court, sniffing back tears. "I don't want to take a chance with them again." Without comment, Harris sentenced Dagley to 25 days in jail. He also placed her on three years of supervised probation and ordered her to perform 48 hours of community service. Heckert said the father of the two youngest boys is in prison for molesting one of Dagley's older daughters. Authorities don't believe the girl drank any of the whiskey, Heckert said. "Our concern in this case was what might have happened," she added. "The house could have burned down. The girl might have gotten alcohol poisoning. The possibilities seem endless." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA