MAN, 35, PLEADS GUILTY TO CHILD-ABUSE CHARGE

MOUNT HOLLY -- He wasn't their father, but he admitted that he had taken
care of his girlfriend's two children during the year he lived with them in
Southampton Township. So, because police said he went with his girlfriend
to Camden to get high on heroin and left the children home alone for two
days last summer, he also faced a criminal charge of child abuse.

Yesterday, Kevin Hines, 35, a part-time painter who still lives in
Southampton, pleaded guilty to the fourth-degree charge for abandoning the
children, ages 8 and 11, from early July 18 to about 10:30 p.m. the next
day. The charge carries a term of up to 18 months in prison, but under a
plea agreement, the recommended sentence will be probation.

The children's mother, Doreen Kohl, 33, was sentenced Dec. 4 to two years'
probation after pleading guilty to the same child-abuse charge. The couple
have since split up, and the children have been placed with the state
Division of Youth and Family Services, according to Kevin P. Morgan, an
assistant Burlington County prosecutor.

Morgan said the plea agreement called for Hines to continue outpatient drug
rehabilitation, to be subjected to random urine tests for drug monitoring,
and to be ordered to stay away from the children.

On July 19, an anonymous call led police to the home, where they found the
two children alone and upset.

"The police found their house in disrepair, and they were living in squalid
conditions," Morgan said.

Hines is scheduled to be sentenced by Superior Court Judge Patricia R.
LeBon on April 16.