While most of us spent Mother’s Day with our loved ones, a Long Island mom spent it alone in jail after crashing her car into a telephone pole while intoxicated. Her children were in the vehicle.

Thirty-year-old Sarah Knakal was driving drunk on East Jericho Turnpike in Suffolk Country when she crashed her SUV, containing her 5-, 7-, and 9-year-old, into the pole, subsequently fleeing the site on foot with her children. Luckily, police were able to track her down, and within 10 minutes of the crash, she was arrested and charged with an aggravated DWI. Thankfully no one was injured.

Knakal’s lawyer and acquaintance of 20 years, Jerome Binder, maintains that she had not been drinking, and “would never endanger her children knowingly,” going on to say that blood tests had not come back yet and there was “no evidence that she was intoxicated.”

Seriously?! It seems like this guy is trying to paint a perfect picture of his client and friend, saying that this type of behavior is very “out of character” for Knakal. Her husband, 32-year-old Ryan Knakal, who maintains a separate physical address, agrees, even calling her a “great mother” during her court appearance. Knakal pled not guilty to the charges. Under Leandra’s Law, driving while intoxicated with a child a felony.

However, neighbors of the mother of three are saying that things are not as they seem, claiming that they frequently hear yelling and screaming coming from the home.

“There are always arguments and fighting going on and it rages through the night,” recalls one neighbor. “It’s really sad. I almost called the cops myself one night because I heard the children screaming.”

The children have been turned over to their father, Ryan Knakal, and a restraining order has been put in place by Child Protective Services while the investigation continues