Substance Abuse Case Studies

REPORTER: The reporter/Case Aid (Trenese) called with concerns for the victims, two unknown children. According to Trenese, on September 8, 2015 (Tuesday), Officer Dexter Grate (Hernando Police Department) pulled Erika (mother) over, and she was charged with possession of paraphernalia and issued a citation for careless driving. The reporter said mom purchased drugs with the two year old in the car. The child (2 year old) was on the back seat asleep. The reporter said mom was “nervous and tweaking”, according to Officer Dexter Gate. The mother was “trying to conceal a pink bag, which had illegal narcotics inside”. Erika (mother) told Officer Gate “she was picking up a friend on Fletcher Street”; mom was in the middle of the road. Officer Gate asked the mother to step out of the car, and she pulled a plastic bag out of her bra, which contained a small amount of marijuana.

The officer asked Erika were there additional drugs in the vehicle, and she said “she had prescribed medications”.

Erika gave the officer verbal consent to search the vehicle, and he found a pink bag on the seat with “Alprozolam” prescriptions. Officer Gate found “23 white/ Alprozolam tablets” with “one yellow colored, and 4 bar tablets” inside the bottle. Erika told Officer Gate she “bought them in the hood”, when she ran out of prescriptions, but she said “it was the same prescription but it came from a different pharmacy”. Erika asked the Officer could she contact her mother (Penny) to pick up her child at the bus stop. The reporter said Officer Gate went back to the vehicle and found a “styrofoam cup” with 2 syringes (half submerged into the ice inside the cup) in the center of the console. Officer Gate asked Erika abut the syringes, and she said “her friend left them” in the vehicle. The reporter said Erika said “she attempted to buy methamphetamine”, and she has a methamphetamine addiction. The victim’s grandmother (Penny) picked up the 2 year

old. The reporter said Erika didn’t follow up with the police officer, and they will be serving Erika with a warrant. They plan to arrest mom on today (09/21/2015). The reporter said the 5 year old was not involved in the incident but listed as a victim, due to mom being on drugs. The reporter has never seen the victims or spoken to Erika about the allegations.