Mother Denies Leaving Tanya

An Orange County woman accused of abandoning her mute 11-year-old daughter in a department store pleaded not guilty Tuesday in San Diego Municipal Court.

Karen Amy May, 37, is charged with felony counts of child endangerment and child abandonment, and could be sentenced to a maximum of six years in state prison if convicted on both charges, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Harry Elias. She was arrested Saturday at her sister-in-law’s home in Torrance after an intensive two-week search for the mother of the mute girl, who was found wandering in a May Co. store in La Jolla on Sept. 14.

The girl, identified as Tanya Tegerdine, is now living with a foster family in San Diego. May’s 7-year-old son, Floyd, who was with her at the time of her arrest, is staying with relatives in Huntington Beach, according to police.

At the arraignment Tuesday, Judge Robert P. McDonald lowered May’s bail from $20,000 to $10,000, noting that May poses no apparent threat to the community. Deputy Public Defender Dawn Beebee had asked that May be released under the court’s supervision, and told the judge that May had lived in Anaheim for a year, working as an accountant for a temporary agency, and has no criminal record.

But Elias countered that May would probably flee the area if she were released. “We’ve received information she was intending to leave the area. . . . The boy was going to be left with the father in Arizona, and she was going to--for lack of a better word--split,” Elias told the judge.

“The victim was totally abandoned in the May Co., some distance from Anaheim,” the prosecutor added, “and at no time did the defendant come forward to indicate her daughter was missing.”

‘A Question of Identity’

May, a slender woman with short, light brown hair who bears a striking resemblance to her daughter, appeared in court in handcuffs and jail clothing and stood quietly throughout the arraignment. Photographers were prohibited from taking pictures of May’s face because, her attorney told the judge, there is “a question of identity.”

Outside the courtroom, defense attorney Beebee refused to elaborate on her statement about May’s identity. Beebee said she could not discuss any aspect of the case and would not say whether May had made any statements regarding the alleged abandonment. At the time of her arrest, May reportedly told police officers that another woman had taken her daughter in the department store and had left her there.

Beebee said only: “She is concerned, she is upset, but I think she was calm and handled herself quite well in court.”

Elias said he was unaware that there was any question about May’s identity, and added that he did not have enough information to believe that another person was involved in the crime.

Defense Attorney Appointed

The judge appointed defense attorney Robert Stahl as May’s attorney for future court appearances, including a Friday bail review.

Last November, May apparently fled her husband and home in Camp Verde, Ariz., where she worked for her husband’s trucking company. She took her two children with her and filed for divorce against her husband, Haskell May, in December, according to her Arizona attorney, Mansell D. Myers.

Myers, speaking from his office in Cottonwood, Ariz., said the Mays’ marriage was “irretrievably broken” when Karen May filed for divorce, but declined to specify what led to the action. Myers said May had custody of their son, Floyd, and of her daughter, Tanya, who was fathered by another man and bears her maiden name of Tegerdine. Myers said he was unaware that May had been arrested and was facing felony charges in San Diego, and said he had fully expected to see her at the Yavapai County Courthouse next week for a child custody hearing.

May was scheduled to appear in court in Arizona next Wednesday to face a contempt charge for allegedly failing to abide by a visitation schedule previously set up by the court, according to a Superior Court clerk at the Yavapai County Courthouse.

Earlier this year May had been ordered to allow her estranged husband to visit their son every other weekend at the home of a relative, Jenny Ingram, in Hawthorne, Calif. But, on the date of the first arranged visit, April 9, Karen May reportedly failed to show up. Another meeting was arranged for June 25, but Karen May did not bring their son to that meeting, either, according to the court records. Haskell May subsequently asked the court to find his former wife in contempt and to have her reimburse him for attorney’s fees and for the cost of traveling to California on both occasions.

Attorney Myers said he was not aware that May had failed to make the scheduled visitation meetings. Haskell May’s attorney in the child-custody dispute, David Morse, declined comment.

Haskell May was not available for comment, but his fiancee, Sherrie Pollock, said Tuesday that they had just returned to Arizona from California. Speaking from their Camp Verde home, Pollock said they received word of Tanya’s reported abandonment last Friday, shortly after police positively identified the girl but before her mother was located. “We had no idea. It’s been quite a shock,” Pollock said. Her fiance, she said, was “extremely upset” when he learned of the girl’s abandonment and his estranged wife’s arrest.

San Diego police detectives say they believe May was living a life on the run in Southern California, moving from place to place in fear that her husband would try to take the children from her. She was under a great deal of stress because of the breakup of her marriage, said Detective Dan Dennis.