Ivy Rose Pooley, 33, and Erin Meadows King, 26, entered not guilty pleas on Thursday in district court to charges of Class C felony child neglect on Dec. 21.

Judge Gary Lee found probable cause to let the charges against Pooley and King stand, but defense attorney Kyle Craig raised questions at the hearing regarding the ages of the children and whether it truly constitutes child neglect to leave an 11-year-old and a 10-year-old, who otherwise appeared to be well-nourished and healthy and relatively mature, home alone for a few hours in a warm apartment late at night.

Craig asked the judge on Thursday to dismiss the case against Pooley and King because “the court has an obligation to nip improvident prosecutions in the bud.”

In support of his position, Craig cited a 2014 state supreme court ruling that leaving a child home alone does not constitute an emergency allowing police to enter a residence. The Morton County case referenced by Craig was North Dakota vs. Stewart and the child in the case was age 10 at the time. Craig said he would file a motion in the case against Pooley and King referencing that decision.

Lee said he will look at the Supreme Court decision in North Dakota vs. Stewart that Craig referred to, but said the facts of this case should be put before a jury. Lee said he was considering how old a child would have to be to have their opinions considered by a court in a decision regarding custody. Lee remarked that there would be no doubt it was a case of child neglect if the children were 5 or 6 and the Ward County state’s attorney’s office likely would not have brought charges if a 16-year-old and 17-year-old had been left home alone.

Pooley and King were charged after a Minot police officer responded to a report that a child about 7 years old had been in an apartment hallway yelling at about 11:05 p.m. that night. Senior Officer Krysta Becker responded to the call and spoke to the neighbor who called. No children were in the hallway when Becker responded but she knocked on their door and a girl answered and responded that she was home alone and her parents had gone out shopping.

The two children were older – ages 11 and 10 – than the person who called police had thought. The 11-year-old girl said she couldn’t sleep because she had heard noises outside. She refused to let Becker into the apartment because she had been warned against talking to strangers or letting anyone in the apartment.

Becker testified at a preliminary hearing that she decided to go inside the apartment anyway to determine whether the children were safe. Becker determined that the children were there alone and Becker could not find a phone or a phone number that the girl could have used to call her parents. She testified that there were also a lot of boxes in the apartment and alcohol was in a closet. There was no indication that the children had touched the alcohol or of what was in the boxes. The family had recently moved to the apartment, according to the girl.

Becker was able to track down a debit card for Pooley in the same area as U.S. Air Force uniforms and Becker contacted the U.S. Air Force Law Enforcement desk to help her locate the children’s parents. The Air Force found a number for Pooley but the officer called it and was unable to reach Pooley. Becker contacted Social Services, who took custody of the children, and left her card in the door for the parents when they returned.

Becker testified that she had been most concerned that the children seemed to have no way to contact their parents and about the mental health of the children, since a caller said one of the children had been in the hallway yelling and the girl appeared scared by the noises she had heard.

After Social Services took the children, Becker testified that she also went to Cashwise Foods and Walmart, the two stores in town she knew to be open 24 hours a day, and had Pooley’s name called over the intercoms along with a request for Pooley to contact her at the police department. No one met Becker at the entrance to a store.

When Becker returned to the police station, she was notified that Pooley had come home and found her business card in the door and that Pooley had then called the police department. Pooley and King declined to speak with her and they were arrested for child neglect.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for April 8 before Judge Lee.