Lebanon man gets time served in endangerment case

Jeremiah Hollenbeck awaits the judge's decision in a Franklin courthouse on Friday. (Harrison Thorp photo)

FRANKLIN, N.H. -  A week ago at this time Jeremiah Hollenbeck of Lebanon, Maine, was in a New Hampshire jail cell on $200,000 cash bail, charged with four counts of child endangerment for leaving four children in a sweltering hot car with the windows rolled up, as well as theft and felony drug charges.

Today he is a free man after a plea deal was worked out.

Hollenbeck, 28, of River Road pleaded no contest on Friday in a Franklin courthouse on the child endangerment charges and the theft of a cellphone case from the city’s Family Dollar store. The felony drug charge was dropped, his defense counsel explaining the car police found a single Oxycodone tablet in wasn’t his.

Sixth Circuit Court Judge Edward M. Gordon found Hollenbeck guilty on the five misdemeanors and sentenced him to a year in the Merrimack County House of Correction, but suspended all but 10 days, which Hollenbeck had already served since his arrest July 17.

It was on that Wednesday 10 days ago that Hollenbeck left four children, including his own 9-month-old twins, in a car with the windows rolled up on a day that saw temperatures climb to near 100 degrees.

A 911 call alerted Franklin Police who rushed to the car in the Family Dollar parking lot, but they couldn’t open the doors to the car. Soon after Hollenbeck emerged from the Family Dollar after which police arrested him and sent the children to be evaluated for heat distress at a local hospital.

The children, who were left in the car about 10 minutes, were treated and found in good condition and later released to a family member whom police would not identify.

Judge Gordon on Friday reflected on the public outrage the case had brought and that the state could have perhaps imposed a harsher sentence.

“There were public expressions of concern and outrage over this case,” he said. “A harsher sentence might have been appropriate, but with no prior criminal history against the defendant, we didn’t.”

A contrite and quiet Hollenbeck, dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit, said little during the hearing except to answer questions from the judge and confer privately with his counsel.

Hollenbeck will have a deferred sentence for one year and a suspended sentence for another year, with the 12 months jail time hanging over him if he doesn’t take required parenting classes and undergo drug and alcohol evaluations and possible treatment.

Judge Gordon said it was appropriate that the state would hold the jail sentence over Hollenbeck for the full two years.

“The state’s been fair with you,” he said to Hollenbeck. “If you don’t comply we will send you back to jail. Hopefully the 10 days served will make you think about that.”