Superior Court Justice Daniel Mitchell presides over a hearing last April at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer)
A former Oakland child care business operator charged with manslaughter in the death of a child in her care sent a juror a Facebook friend request, prompting the courts to delay her trial just before it was to start.
Lisa Barney, 56, was scheduled to go on trial May 26 in connection with the death of a 4-month-old who was attending her Little Angel’s Family Child Care on Allagash Drive.
However, after a juror contacted the state court system to say he received a Facebook friend request from Barney, her trial was continued with no new date set. A new jury will be chosen.
Superior Court Justice Daniel Mitchell ordered the case be continued with a new jury. And he admonished Barney, reminding her she was present when the court told the jurors after they were selected for the trial that no one should be attempting to contact them.
Her attorney, Robert Sandy Jr., told Mitchell he had given the names of the jurors to Barney, who proceeded to research 10 of them on Facebook. Sandy told the court, Mitchell’s order stated, that Barney sent the friend request to one of the jurors accidentally.
Mitchell noted Sandy’s apparent dissemination of the jurors’ names to Barney violated state court procedure rules and the superior court’s standing order for limited access to juror information.
Court rules allow disclosure of juror names only to attorneys, their authorized agents, or self-represented parties for jury selection and trial preparation. Juror information must be kept confidential and jurors may not be directly or indirectly contacted, including through electronic or social media.
Sandy did not return email and phone requests for comment.
Mitchell wrote in his May 14 decision ordering the case to be continued that he did it for several reasons. Seating a new jury would address the problem created by the defendant having the names of the present jurors and the court believes it would have to interview the other jurors to determine if, and to what extent, the defendant had contact with them. He wrote the court had concerns about trying the case with one alternate juror, as two other jurors were previously excused from the jury.
He also noted the state has filed a motion to disqualify Sandy from the case and that would have been difficult to adjudicate adequately before Barney’s trial had been scheduled to take place.
The state’s motion to disqualify Barney’s attorney, and Sandy’s response to it, were impounded by the courts and are not accessible by the public.
The Office of Chief Medical Examiner determined the infant’s death was a homicide and the cause of death was “shearing injuries to neurons in brain and other parts of central nervous system.”
Barney’s child care business closed down Aug. 31, 2023, the day the infant died and parents of other children there were notified to pick them up, a Maine Department of Health and Human Services official said. The agency oversees licensing for child care providers.
The child care operation reopened for a short time a few days later, before Barney agreed with a state request to close the facility again. Her license has since expired. State records indicate she was licensed as a child care provider from May 22, 1997, to Nov. 16, 2023. Her business was licensed to care for up to eight children.
Barney was arrested Sept. 20, 2024, after a yearlong investigation into the death of the infant on Sept. 8, 2023, a news release from Maine State Police Lt. Aaron Turcotte stated.
A Kennebec County grand jury indicted Barney on a manslaughter charge Sept. 19, 2024. A warrant was issued and she was arrested at 9:15 a.m. the next day by Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit detectives, who charged her with manslaughter. She later pleaded not guilty.