“The idea she is now going to begin to comply… I didn’t buy.”

That was at the heart of Judge Gregory Hammond’s line of logic in upholding a child endangerment sentence against the mother of a child who drowned in the Allegheny River last year.

Patti Jo Vargason was sentenced to eight months in county jail for her role in the incident.

Troopers say in the affidavit of probable cause that a call was forwarded to them from Vargason last August via the 911 Center and, during that call, she told police she believed her daughter was in the river and could not be located. Several troopers responded.

Once on scene, troopers spent several minutes walking down the riverbank but did not locate the missing child. They found the river “very high and muddy from the amount of rain received several days prior to this incident,” police said in the affidavit.

Vargason, police alleged, said she last saw the 2-year-old between 10:20 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., telling police she woke up and could hear children playing downstairs. She said the 2-year-old was in a pack and play next to her bed and was asleep.

She then told police her son “woke her up at 11 screaming (that the 2-year-old) fell into the river.” She allegedly reported to police that her two oldest children had gone outside to play and that the 5-year-old also showed her where the 2-year-old entered the river.

The 2-year-old’s body was located in a debris pile a mile south from where she was believed to have fallen into the river the following day.

Both Chief Public Defender Kord Kinney and District Attorney Rob Greene argued that Vargason should not be jailed.

Kinney said during argument court Friday that the facts and circumstances “need to be considered a little bit further.” He said she took responsibility for the incident and argued that the needs of society and her own rehabilitation are not served by jail time.

He asked for the sentence to be changed to house arrest.

Greene said it’s not his job to put people in jail but to seek justice. He said the lost child is punishment “in and of itself.”

“I don’t think eight months incarceration is in anyone’s interest,” he added.”I don’t think the interest of justice is being served.”

Hammond said he had to consider the death of the child in handing down the sentence and said he viewed her entire record in settling where he did on the sentence.

He said he presided over a 2014 protection from abuse order against Vargason and heard testimony in that case that she stabbed her fiance, put a cigarette out on his face and rammed his vehicle at the Tidioute boat launch.

Hammond said he referred the situation to Children and Youth Services out of that hearing because he was “terrified for her children.” He explained that Vargason was revoked for violations of the PFA and also “failed to comply” with treatment requirements and opportunities from a 2021 DUI sentence.

“The idea she is now going to begin to comply… I didn’t buy,” he said in denying the request. “(She has) avoided real responsibility about her conduct for years.”