Portsmouth Police booking photo of Amanda Nappi.

PORTSMOUTH — A 30-year-old woman who drove a vehicle carrying her three young children into the Lawton Valley Reservoir on Thursday, June 28, has been charged with three counts of cruelty to or neglect of child.

Amanda Nappi, of Milford, Mass., was taken into custody after being released from a local hospital following the accident, which took place shortly before 3 p.m. 

According to Deputy Police Chief Michael C. Arnold, Portsmouth Police were called to the reservoir for a report of a vehicle that had become submerged in the water.

Police said Ms. Nappi was operating a 2007 Toyota Highlander “and had gained access to the reservoir’s embankment,” Deputy Arnold stated in a press release. 

The reservoir is located on the east side of Route 114 and north of Union Street.

As a precaution, the occupants were taken to a hospital for treatment by the Portsmouth Fire Department.

The children were later turned over the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, with the assistance of the R.I. Department of Children, Youth and Families. 

Ms. Nappi was arraigned by a justice of the peace and processed at the Portsmouth Police Department. She failed to post bail and was taken to the Women’s Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston, Deputy Arnold said.