Mass. mother charged after car with kids driven into Portsmouth reservoir

PORTSMOUTH — A Massachusetts woman has been charged with three counts of child cruelty or neglect after the police say she drove her car into Lawton Valley Reservoir Friday afternoon with her three young children inside, according to Deputy Police Chief Michael C. Arnold.

All four were taken to the hospital as a precaution and later released, Arnold said.

The mother, Amanda Nappi, 30, of Milford, was arraigned by a bail commissioner and, after failing to post bail, taken to the Adult Correctional Institutions.

The four children were turned over to the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families with the assistance of the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families.

The police had received a call at about 3 p.m. Friday of a vehicle submerged in the water. The police said that Nappi drove along an embankment beside the reservoir and then down into the water.