BOSTON (WHDH) - The Massachusetts Bail Fund has paid $100,000 to free a woman who is facing criminal charges for allegedly dumping her newborn baby in a trash can in Boston last month.
A woman walking down Dorchester Avenue on the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 26, found the baby crying in a trash can outside Pat’s Pizza.
The baby, who was said to be covered in blood, was taken to a nearby hospital. The infant has since recovered.
Marie Merisier, the baby’s 33-year-old mother, was found at a home in Milton a short time later, according to Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins.
Merisier was arraigned on attempted murder charges on March 1 and was ordered held on $100,000 bail.
In a statement, the Massachusetts Bail Fund said that it posted the high bail because Merisier’s “urgent mental health and healthcare needs” were going unmet, and that she was “being deprived of basic hygienic necessities.”
“We united as a coalition to post bail for Marie Merisier who is deserving of what we all are deserving of – compassion, support and adequate resources. The overtly punitive $100k bail that was imposed on Marie meant her urgent mental health and healthcare needs would go unmet. Our worries were affirmed when she was being deprived of basic hygienic necessities,” the statement read. “We have a constitutional right to post bail and we do so to protect people from the catastrophe of pre-trial detention which increases chances of conviction, longer sentences and prevents access to the support needed to fight one’s case. We do believe in individual and community accountability which the community has a shared responsibility in addressing, not prisons. This is long-term work. We are committed to encircling Marie and other Black women with the resources they need to not only survive but heal and thrive.”
Prosecutors said Merisier went to 73-year-old Leon St. Gerard’s house to do cleaning and cooking work, and he noticed she was pregnant before she went into his bathroom for an hour. St. Gerard allegedly heard a baby crying before Merisier came out of the bathroom with a brown leather bag that he heard the cries coming from.
“I couldn’t believe it,” St. Gerard said of Merisier’s actions. “I heard something crying in the bag, I said ‘Do you want to call an ambulance?’ She said no.”
Investigators later obtained video of Merisier dropping a double-knotted bag in the trash can outside the pizzeria on Dorchester Avenue, according to prosecutors.
A not guilty plea was entered on Merisier’s behalf. She is due back in court at a later date.
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