Father accused of abandonment allegedly used stolen property for bail

EVERETT — The parents of children rescued from squalid conditions in January pleaded not guilty Monday to multiple felony charges.

Mark Dorson had bonded out of jail but was arrested at Monday’s hearing. It was alleged that he used a stolen telescope as collateral with a bail bonds company. The $3,000 telescope has since been returned to its owner. A judge ordered Dorson held on $100,000 bail.

Prosecutors last week charged him and his girlfriend, Amanda Foley, with child abandonment and criminal mistreatment. They are accused of leaving three children, 7, 3 and 10 months, alone in a filthy house in Lake Stevens that later was deemed uninhabitable.

A nurse reported that the youngest, who recently turned 1, was on the verge of kidney failure and so hypothermic that he could have died if he hadn’t received immediate care.

Foley and Dorson, both 32, told detectives they left the children in the care of a neighbor. The woman denied that she was asked to baby-sit. She saw the couple leave two hours before Lake Stevens police arrived to investigate reports that the children may be in danger.