CRANBERRY TWP., Pa. (EYT) — An Oil City woman is facing child endangerment and related charges after she was discovered intoxicated while in charge of her grandchildren at a local swimming hole.

Court documents indicate the Franklin-based State Police filed criminal charges against 50-year-old Lori Ann Lockhart, of Oil City.

According to a criminal complaint, on Wednesday, July 10, Trooper Cirell, of the Franklin-based State Police, was dispatched to a call of a highly intoxicated woman at “Coulter’s Swimming Hole” with five children.

While Trooper Cirell was en route, state police received another call relating the same information, as well as a third caller who said she encountered a 15-year-old boy walking along Cranberry Rockland Road in swim trunks who had flagged the caller down and said his “drunk grandmother kicked him out of the vehicle,” and had continued driving with four other children in the vehicle.

Trooper Cirell arrived at the scene and observed a witness waving him down from the driver’s seat of a vehicle.

According to the complaint, the witness explained that Lori Lockhart was intoxicated and was grabbing onto the witness’s three-year-old cousin. The witness offered to show Trooper Criell the swimming area where she had observed Lockhart.

The complaint notes that Trooper Cirell parked his patrol vehicle in front of Lockhart’s vehicle, which he observed was not equipped with any kind of booster seats of child safety restraints. He then saw four young children running toward him from the Sandy Creek Trail and heard the oldest child, a 10-year-old girl, say: “There’s a police car, maybe the police can help us.”

According to the complaint, the girl ran over to Trooper Cirell and said: “My grandma is really drunk, and if we get in the car with her, we are gonna die.”

Trooper Cirell then instructed the children to wait at his patrol vehicle with another witness and began walking toward the swimming hole with the first witness.

Before reaching the swimming hole, Trooper Cirell saw Lockhart on the trail approximately 50 meters away. He witnessed her fall into the tall grass on the northern side of the trail. He then spoke to Lockhart and noted that she could not stand without stumbling and having to support herself on the railing of the bridge, her speech was slurred, and she had trouble communicating a complete thought. As he spoke to Lockhart, she began to “break wind” and stumble again, according to the complaint.

The complaint states that Trooper Cirell asked Lockhart if she had a phone, and she stated she did not, and when asked if she had a plan for transporting the children home safely, she replied: “my boyfriend.” Trooper Cirell then asked where her boyfriend was, and she replied: “He lives in Pittsburgh.” When Trooper Cirell asked if she had called her boyfriend or arranged for him to pick up the children, she said “No.”

Lockhart was then placed in custody and escorted back to the patrol vehicle, where Trooper Falco arrived and assisted with the investigation by administering a preliminary breath test which revealed that Lockhart had a high level of alcohol in her system.

It is also stated in the complaint that Lockhart allowed a 15-year-old boy to obtain an alcoholic beverage.

Lockhart was arraigned in front of Magisterial District Judge Andrew F. Fish at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, July 12, on the following charges:

– Endangering Welfare of Children — Parent/Guardian/Other Commits Offense, Felony 3 (five counts)
– Sell/Furnish Liquor Etc. Minor, Misdemeanor 3
– Public Drunkenness And Similar Misconduct, Summary
– Drive While Operator Privilege Suspended or Revoked, Summary
– Restrictions on Alcoholic Beverages, Summary
– Restraint Systems — Child Booster Seat, Summary

Unable to post $10,000.00 monetary bail, she was lodged in the Venango County Jail.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, July 24, at 1:30 p.m.