The lawyer for a woman who gave birth in the woods in Manchester on Christmas called the event a “difficult and terrifying” situation in a new court filing, describing the night when Alexandra Eckersley, confused and afraid, went into premature labor.

Defense attorney Kimberly Kossick argues that Eckersley, 26, committed no crime and is entitled to a probable cause hearing, requiring the state to prove why the charges are justified, according to a motion filed Thursday in Hillsborough County Superior Court. Kossick said Eckersley acted under duress from her boyfriend when she misled police about the whereabouts of the baby.

Eckersley, who is unhoused, is accused by police of abandoning her baby in a tent without heat or clothing on a night when outside temperatures were 15 degrees Fahrenheit. She pleaded not guilty on Dec. 27 to charges of assault, reckless conduct, and other counts. She was released on bail on the condition that she can’t have contact with the baby boy.

According to the motion, Eckersley said she was not aware she was pregnant until she went into premature labor that night at the campsite that she shared with her boyfriend George Theberge, 45, who was arrested Thursday on charges of witnesses tampering, reckless conduct and endangering the welfare of a child.

Eckersley told Manchester Police that doctors had told her in the past that she could not have children, so when she began having stomach pains the afternoon of Dec. 26 she believed it was digestive issues until the moment she gave birth shortly before midnight. In a conflicting claim, the police affidavit says a witness told a Manchester detective that Eckersley told her she was 4-5 months pregnant one week before the incident.

The motion candidly describes Eckersley’s desperate 12:26 a.m. phone call with a 9-1-1 operator after the birth, during which the operator gave Eckersley advice on stopping her postpartum bleeding. During the emergency call the birth was discussed as a miscarriage, Kossick wrote, with Eckersley telling the operator she could not have been more than three months pregnant. When the operator asked her about the whereabouts of the “fetus,” she reported that it was on the ground. The operator advised Eckersley to leave the fetus where it was and remain in one place so the paramedics could locate her.

In the police interview, Eckersley told police that the baby, once born, “looked too small to be born or to live,” and that he cried for less than a minute and then stopped. According to the motion, Theberge checked the baby’s pulse five minutes after the birth, and didn’t find one. Eckersley said she did not know how to determine if there was a pulse herself, according to the police affidavit. Eckersley and Theberge then left the tent, which was heated by propane, and called 9-1-1.

Eckersley told police that Theberge instructed her not to reveal the location of their tent so police wouldn’t take it, telling her to say they had been at the athletic fields on the Manchester side of the pedestrian bridge. Eckersley said she complied because she didn’t want to “get yelled at” by Theberge, who she described as “a very stubborn 45-year-old man.”

“Ms. Eckersley was afraid of George Theberge,” Kossick argued in the motion. “As soon as Ms. Eckersley realized she was safe in the ambulance, and that George was not coming back, she took the police to the tent.”

Eckersley told police that while she waited for the ambulance, Theberge returned to the tent alone to retrieve his tablet and turn off the propane heater, according to the police affidavit. Eckersley said the reason they turned off the propane heater is because it would be hard for them to survive outside in the winter if they lost their tent. Theberge was gone from the area by the time first responders arrived.

When paramedics, firefighters and police arrived, Eckersley, still bleeding, was put in an ambulance for treatment. After police repeatedly questioned her about the whereabouts of the baby, Eckersley initially led them walking toward athletic fields and then to the rail trail beside the West Side Ice Arena on the Manchester side of the bridge, before responders brought Eckersley back to the ambulance to warm up. It was then that Eckersley revealed to a female paramedic that the baby was in the tent on the Goffstown side of the bridge, and agreed to lead police to the site.

Police found the baby alive in the tent. A physician later determined that the baby was about 4.41 pounds, and told police the size is consistent with a baby born about six months into pregnancy.

When questioned by police about the incident, Eckersley said that she was still trying to “wrap her head around what happened.”

“I had no idea what to do, I didn’t even think it could happen,” she said, according to the motion.

Eckersley, who has struggled with mental illness her entire life according to her family, is the daughter of Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley, who was played for Cleveland, Boston, the Cubs, Oakland and the Cardinals.

The Monitor spoke with Eckersley in 2019 about the issue of homelessness in Concord. At the time, she was living in an encampment near Storrs Street, and shared her ideas for helping to stop the stigma associated with unhoused people in the Concord area, such as creating landscaping, gardening or painting jobs for unhoused people at a facility in exchange for a place to stay. At the time she shared a dream of attending college and working in the mental health field.

The Eckersley family released a statement last month saying they had no prior knowledg e of the pregnancy and were in complete shock. They were seeking guardianship of the baby.

]]>