A Quarryville mother appeared in district court Thursday, Oct. 6 to waive a preliminary hearing on allegations that she left her 2-year-old son alone when he drank pipe cleaner.
The boy sustained life-threatening internal burns on July 26 when he ingested the pipe cleaner while alone with his siblings in a dairy barn.
Katie Zook, 29, represented herself Thursday at District Judge Raymond Sheller’s courtroom in Intercourse where she waived a hearing on the misdemeanor endangerment charge, according to Assistant District Attorney Christopher Sarno.
In turn, Sheller ordered Zook face the charge in Lancaster County Court.
Zook signed paperwork regarding the waiver and her representing herself and was released on her own recognizance.
Zook admitted to state police Trooper Linda Gerow to leaving the children alone in the barn on the Drytown Road farm for at least an hour. The three other children were 4, 5, and 6.
There were other chemicals in the barn, including liquid acid and powdered soap. The pipe cleaner is used to clean milk lines of the dairy operation.
Trooper Gerow filed the charge.
Source: Pennsylvania State Police Lancaster
