Mom found guilty of killing baby with fentanyl in sippy cup
A Pennsylvania mom who prosecutors argue gave her baby fentanyl in a sippy cup so she could return to smoking pot was found guilty in the child’s death.
Jhenea Pratt, 23, showed no emotion when she was convicted Tuesday in Allegheny County Court of involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of her 17-month-old daughter, news station KOCO reported.
The jury acquitted the mom of homicide charges in the April 5, 2018, death of Charlette Napper-Talley, who was poisoned by a fentanyl cocktail at their East Hills apartment.
Prosecutors argued Pratt fed her baby the fatal mixture because she wanted to “sit back, relax and smoke marijuana,” according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“That baby was getting in the way of her enjoying her pastime,” Assistant District Attorney Diana Page told the court.
Police who responded to the home in April 2018 discovered a red liquid inside a pink sippy cup that contained enough fentanyl to “kill two horses,” according to the newspaper.
Pratt told police she gave her daughter the cup and put her to sleep about an hour before she found her unresponsive in bed.
Jurors were shown footage of detectives questioning Pratt about the deadly opioid inside the cup — with the mom claiming the drug may have come from a fruit-flavored “happy drink.”
“I have no knowledge as to how fentanyl got into my daughter’s sippy cup,” Pratt was heard saying, according to KOCO.
Pratt’s court-appointed lawyer argued that she may “smoke weed every now and then” but wasn’t responsible for her daughter’s death, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
Her attorney, Brandon Herring, claimed the mom’s boyfriend, Albert Williams, prepared the fatal mixture in the sippy cup for her daughter.
“Albert had access to fentanyl and he prepared the sippy cup,” Herring told the court. “The prosecution hasn’t provided any evidence that Ms. Pratt put the fentanyl in that cup.”
The date for Pratt’s sentencing has not been set.
via: http:// https://nypost.com/2019/06/05/mom-found-guilty-of-killing-baby-with-fentanyl-in-sippy-cup/
Photo Credit: nypost.com/Pittsburgh Police
Medicaid bought erectile dysfunction drugs for NY sex offenders
Registered sex offenders in New York received $63,000 worth of erectile dysfunction drugs and other sexual treatments courtesy of the state’s publicly funded Medicaid program, according to an audit released Wednesday.
Federal rules bar Medicaid coverage of sexual treatments for all recipients, not just sex offenders. Yet state Medicaid officials approved $930,000 in improper payments for the drugs between 2012 and 2018, according to the audit released by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and first reported by The Associated Press.
According to the audit, 47 of those Medicaid recipients were also state sex offenders, who are prohibited from getting Medicaid-covered sexual treatments under a state law.
DiNapoli said the lapses identified in the audit show the need for immediate action by state health officials to increase accountability and oversight.
“There are clear rules about what conditions Medicaid will cover when it comes to erectile dysfunction drugs,” DiNapoli said. “Paying for sex offenders who’ve committed terrible crimes to get these drugs should never be lost in the bureaucratic administration of this program.”
State health officials dismissed much of the criticism, noting that under Medicaid rules, erectile dysfunction drugs can be prescribed to treat other conditions, such as prostate problems.
The auditors “either ignored the law or the facts, which undermines any value that can be associated with its findings,” the department said in a formal, written response to the audit.
But auditors discounted that explanation, noting that in many cases the medications were approved for Medicaid recipients who had no relevant diagnosis.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
A teacher just got fired for asking Trump to deport undocumented students
A Texas high school teacher who thought she was private messaging anti-immigration tweets to President Donald Trump has been fired for asking the President to deport undocumented students
“[Fort Worth] ISD is loaded with illegal students from Mexico,” Georgia Clark said in a series of tweets on May 17.
“I really do need a contact here in FW who should be actively investigating & removing illegals that are in the public school system.”
Clark has been a high school English teacher in the Fort Worth Independent School District since 1998, the district said.
In a special school board meeting on Tuesday night, a number of community members voiced very strong opinions against her tweets. The school board voted unanimously to terminate Clark’s contract with good cause.
Teacher will appeal the ruling
Clark’s attorney told CNN that they’ll be fighting her contract termination and will be asking for a hearing to contest her firing.
Texas state law says that she has 15 days to appeal the decision with the state Education Agency. As that appeal process plays out, Clark technically will remain an employee and collect a paycheck.
“Once the tweets came to light, so, too, did other allegations,” Superintendent Kent P. Scribner said after the school board meeting.
“In my professional judgment, the totality of the behavior warranted the recommendation for termination. Our mission is to prepare all students for success in college, career, and community leadership.”
But those tweets aren’t the only reason why she’s being fired.
Other allegations emerged
As the school district investigated the tweets, a confidential memo obtained by CNN through an open records request has revealed that students came forward and said she made racist statements in class the same day that she posted the tweets.
A statement given to school officials by unnamed students claims Clark said after a lesson that Mexicans should not enter the United States illegally.
When a student asked to go to the bathroom afterward, Clark allegedly said, “show me your papers that are saying you are legal.”
Clark responded to the accusations in the memo denying ever making any statement on anyone’s immigration status and said the student didn’t have a “planner” needed to leave the classroom.
According to the memo, the language in the classroom and her tweets were the reasons for Clark’s firing.
These incidents are not Clark’s first time using racially charged language in the classroom, specifically about students of Mexican heritage.
Disciplined over racially charged language
Clark was suspended without pay, and reassigned, in 2013, acccording to information received in the open records request. That was because she called a group of students working together and speaking Spanish, “Little Mexico,” and she referred to another student as “white bread.”
In that same disciplinary report, Clark also allegedly made her students do an activity in which she separated her students by their race and told the “Mexicans” to cross the border to the other side of the classroom.
The district refused to comment, or confirm, on the previous incident and told CNN to file an open records request for more information.
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Mom allegedly tries to drown daughters at Manhattan shelter, blames bad marijuana
EAST HARLEM, Manhattan — A 35-year-old mom allegedly tried to drown her daughters inside an East Harlem shelter on Tuesday morning, police said.
Security at the East River Family Shelter found the 15-month-old girl and 6-year-old girl after Keyshana Mims allegedly ran through the shelter naked, yelling that her daughters were dying, officials said. The older girl told officers their mom held them under water.
Neither girl was seriously harmed.
Mims claimed to be on bad marijuana, an NYPD spokesperson said. She was taken to a local hospital for a psychological evaluation. Mims had since been arrested and charged with attempted murder.
PIX11 has reached out to the New York City Administration for Children’s Services for comment.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
11-month-old found dead in Saint Louis county car was there for about 16 hours
CALVERTON PARK, Mo. (KMOV.com) – Police are investigating after an infant was found dead in a car in Calverton Park Sunday.
Police said the infant was found in a vehicle on the 100 block of Anistasia Drive about 5:00 p.m. According to authorities, the 11-month-old Joseline Eichelberger was in the hot car for about 16 hours.
“I feel like a piece of my heart is gone because she was a part of me,” said Joseline’s cousin Lilly Bellfield.
No one is currently in custody but police said they have spoken with two persons of interest.
A family friend says the parents are devastated.
“You have two young parents. One telling one to get the child and other telling the other..you know mistakes are made,” said family friend Barbara Beckett. “it’s a nightmare, they are traumatized. They can’t stop crying.”
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Mother arrested for locking young children in room alone to go to bar
CLEVELAND – Police body camera footage shows a heart-wrenching scene inside a Cleveland home after police got a call who could hear non-stop crying coming from multiple children.
Their mother, Liz Yomaris Torres Rivera, faces charges for child endangering.
The video, obtained by sister station WJW, shows responding officers kick in the front door and look around, with no immediate sign of children. They keep investigating, hear crying inside the apartment and eventually find three children, ages 2,3 and 5, locked in a room.
Soon after that, the children’s mother walks in and asks, “What’s up?”
An officer stops her from going into the room where the children are, says, “You weren’t worried about the kids when you locked ‘em in the bedroom and you took off, were you?”
He continues, “Smell like you’ve been drinking. Coming from a bar. Where were you at? Benny’s?”
The mother answers, “Yeah.”
A WJW news crew went to the house to try to speak with Rivera, only to find that the landlord had kicked her out. A note said the property had been damaged. Police said they found garbage, bugs, a nasty smell, and it “felt about 90 to 95 degrees inside.”
Now, the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services also has an open case with the mother. Officials says the children are currently with a relative.
WJW reports that she plans to plead not guilty.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
School apologizes after boy with autism given ‘most annoying’ award
GARY, Ind. – An Indiana father says he was “blindsided” after a teacher gave his 11-year-old son, who has autism, an award for “most annoying male.”
“We just weren’t expecting it,” dad Rick Castejon told the The Times of Northwest Indiana. “As a principal or teacher, you should never let this happen to any student.”
Castejon said a special education teacher at Bailly Preparatory Academy in Gary handed out the awards in May during an annual end-of-year ceremony and luncheon for fifth-graders.
The Times reported that the parents attending the event at a Golden Corral restaurant became silent as the boy received the trophy.
Castejon told the paper he tried to leave the engraved trophy on a table, but the unidentified female teacher reminded him not to forget it, and acted like it was all in fun.
He said his son is non-verbal, sometimes rocks back and forth and is prone to becoming emotional. Castejon says he now sees the school’s calls during the academic year, asking how to handle his son, in a different light.
Castejon and his family are moving before the next school year begins, but he told The Times he’s speaking up so other families don’t go through a similar experience in Gary.
Peter Morikis, an emergency manager with the Gary Community School Corp., told The Times in a statement that they don’t condone the behavior and “extend our deepest apologies to the impacted student, the family and anyone else who takes offense to this unfortunate occurrence.
“Just because they have special needs doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings,” Castejon said.
The Times is considering filing a Freedom of Information Act request to find out what disciplinary measures are taken against the teacher.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/06/04/school-apologizes-after-boy-with-autism-given-most-annoying-award/
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Man steals over $2,000 from mosque donation box in the Bronx
CONCOURSE, the Bronx — Cops are searching for the man who took thousands from a Bronx mosque during Ramadan, police said.
It happened on May 21 around 6 a.m. at the Masjid Nur Al Islam Mosque along Sherman Avenue in the Concourse section of the Bronx.
The man entered the mosque and removed a donation box from the location, police said.
The donation box contained about $2,200 in cash, cops said.
Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting www.nypdcrimestoppers.com, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
via: https://pix11.com/2019/06/04/man-steals-over-2000-from-mosque-donation-box-in-the-bronx/
Photo Credit: pix11.com
Alabama lawmakers pass bill requiring chemical castration of child molesters
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Lawmakers in Alabama have passed a bill that would require the chemical castration of people convicted of a sex crime against a child under the age of 13, according to WIAT.
If Gov. Kay Ivey signs the bill, it would require offenders aged 21 and older to be chemically castrated before leaving prison.
The bill, known as HB 379, was introduced by Republican State Rep Steve Hurst of Calhoun County, which is in the northeast part of the state.
“I had people call me in the past when I introduced it and said, ‘Don’t you think this is inhumane?’ I asked them, ‘What’s more inhumane than when you take a little infant child and you sexually molest that infant child when the child cannot defend themselves or get away, and they have to go through all the things they have to go through?’ If you want to talk about inhumane, that’s inhumane,” Hurst told WIAT.
Hurst said he hopes the bill will reduce the number of sex crimes against children by encouraging potential offenders to think twice.
“If we do something of this nature, it would deter something like this happening again in Alabama and maybe reduce the numbers,” Hurst told WIAT.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Taco Bell customer calls police after restaurant runs out of taco shells
SLIDELL, La. — A Taco Bell in Louisiana ran out of taco shells Monday, which was emergency enough for one customer to call police.
Police in Slidell say someone called to complain that the Taco Bell on Gause Boulevard had run out of both hard and soft taco shells.
“While this is truly a travesty, the police can’t do anything about this,” the department wrote on its Facebook page, calling it a “we can’t make this stuff up” story.
While there was no word on the status of taco shells at the Louisiana location, Slidell police said they hoped the situation would be resolved in time for Taco Tuesday.
Photo Credit: Getty Images