Mattapoisett neighbors shocked by boy left on side of road

By: Rebecca Turco

Email: rturco@abc6.com

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MATTAPOISETT, Mass. – Neighbors in Mattapoisett are in shock, after a boy was left on the side of the road in the frigid cold Friday night.

The 11 year-old told police his mother, Marina Johnson, kicked him out of the car for acting up.

“I don’t know how bad he could have been acting up to get thrown out of the car in that weather with no hat and no gloves,” said William Hubbard, who lives on Mattapoisett Neck Road – the street where the boy was stranded.

Temperatures that night were in the mid-20s and it felt even colder with the wind. Not to mention, the traffic. “The traffic flies up and down this street and he was strange to the area,” Hubbard said. “He wouldn’t realize that these cars would be flying by here at night. So it’s scary."

The boy’s account led police to the House of Hope in New Bedford, where authorities questioned Johnson. The family had been living in the transitional housing there for about a week, after their home burned down.

Program Director Rev. Bob Hughes explains Johnson showed no initial signs of parental neglect. “She was a victim of a fire…She’s at risk herself,” he said. “She just did not present anything that would have been apparent.”

Hughes says Johnson told police she had to put her other son to bed, then snuck out. "We were terrified,” he explained, “It was very, very cold for a little kid to be outside."

Authorities eventually found them and arrested Johnson.

Hubbard, meanwhile, is concerned about the boys. "I just hope that everything works out so that they’re not traumatized by this," he said.

Johnson pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment of a child and a felony charge of abandonment of a child without support. She was held on $25,000 bail and transported to Framingham State Prison.

Her sons were placed in foster care by the Department of Children and Families.

© WLNE-TV 2017