RUMFORD – A Milton Township woman, whom police say left her young daughter in a locked car without heat late at night while she drank at a bar, will be arraigned on a charge of endangering the girl.

Jill Averill, 28, is free on bail and will be arraigned Feb. 6 in Rumford District Court, police said.

At 11:43 p.m. Thursday, police received a report of a child left inside a car that wasn’t running while her mother was inside The Shak, a bar at 12 Oxford Ave.

Patrolman Charles Beale said Wednesday that when he arrived, he found a 7-year-old girl asleep in a locked, gray Pontiac Grand Am. There was frost on the car, and the temperature was 28 degrees Fahrenheit. She had been in there from 45 minutes to an hour, Beale said.

He knocked on the car window, waking up the girl, who unlocked the door when he identified himself as a policeman. Beale then placed her in his cruiser for warmth and radioed the Oxford County Regional Communications Center in Paris, asking for Med-Care Ambulance and Rumford Fire Department emergency medical technicians to examine the child.

Med-Care was busy with calls, so firefighters checked her and determined she was OK, Beale said. The girl was released to a family member.

While Beale was checking on the girl, whom he did not name, Averill came out of the bar and asked what was happening, Beale said.

Under questioning Averill admitted to drinking in the bar while the child was outside in the car, he said. At 12:02 a.m. Friday, Beale arrested her on a charge of endangering the welfare of a child.

Averill was taken to the Rumford police station initially, and then to Oxford County Jail in Paris after failing to post bail of either $3,000 cash or $50,000 real estate, Beale added. A judge lowered the bail to $500 cash later Friday and Averill was released, bail commissioner Bob Grinnell of Rumford said.

Efforts to contact Averill were unsuccessful.

Rumford police are continuing to investigate the incident, in conjunction with an investigation by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.