Warrington Nanny Jailed For DUI Crash With Toddlers In Tow

A nanny from Warrington who was high on drugs when she crashed a car while driving around two young children has been sentenced to serve six to 23 months in prison, the Bucks County District Attorney's office said.

Jacqueline Carroll, 26, had previously pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of a controlled substance and endangering the welfare of children. The judge refused to recommend that Carroll, who is pregnant with her first child, could serve any of her sentence outside of prison on work release.

According to information from the Bucks County District Attorney's office, Carroll had a "significant level" of Xanax in her system when she crashed her Jeep Grand Cherokee into an embankment last August while driving in Warwick Township with 2-year-old twins in the car.

Carroll was a full-time nanny for the twin boys and their 5-year-old brother and had worked for the family for 10 months, authorities said.

The crash heavily damaged the Jeep and caused its air bags to deploy. No serious injuries were reported, but the children suffered abrasions.

Blood tests showed that Carroll had a "significant level" of non-prescribed Xanax in her system at the time of the crash, the District Attorney's office said. A clutch bag containing cocaine and syringes was later found hidden under the padding of one of the toddlers’ car seats, the District Attorney's office said.

The parents told investigators that they checked Carroll’s background before hiring her, and found no criminal history and a clean driving record. Carroll has struggled with drug addiction since she was 17, and had been in drug rehabilitation programs six times, authorities said.

“Both my husband and I have advanced degrees and consider ourselves cautious and vigilant,” the children’s mother told Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr. in court. “We were completely fooled and it almost cost us our children’s lives. I fear for other families like us.”

The children's parents say up until the crash, they thought Carroll was a good nanny for their children.

She was "easygoing, reliable and loving,” the children's mother said, according to the District Attorney's office. She even kept a journal for the parents listing details of the children’s daily meals and activities, such as trips to playgrounds, the library, music classes and gym classes, investigators said.

But the parents later learned that Carroll had stopped taking the children to those classes and was instead pocketing the money for her own personal use.

“I became outraged and disgusted, thinking of what she must have been doing with my children all day,” the mother said in court. “She had completely manipulated our children into saying they were at `gym’ and/or `music.’ Was she on drugs from the beginning or did she just relapse? Was she using drugs in front of them? Was she buying drugs with them in tow? Where was she taking them during the day?”

Carroll has denied ever using drugs in front of the children or purchasing drugs while with them.

Bateman sentenced Carroll to serve 72 hours to 48 months in jail for the DUI, plus a $2,000 fine and 100 hours of community service. He sentenced her to a concurrent six to 23 months for the child-endangerment charges.