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West Virginia Supreme Court Decides On Drug Charges

Parents of babies with drugs in systems targeted

CHARLESTON — West Virginia’s highest court has ruled that evidence of illicit drugs in a newborn’s umbilical cord is sufficient to bring a child abuse proceeding against the mother and the father who knew about her drug use.

The state Supreme Court of Appeals decision stems from a pending case in Ohio County before Circuit Judge James Mazzone.

The parents involved are not named in the opinion, filed Friday and written by Justice Robin Jean Davis, which sends the case back to Ohio County Circuit Court for further proceedings.

The case concerns a baby born prematurely in February 2016. The umbilical cord tested positive for cocaine, opiates, codeine, hydrocodone and oxycodone. A twin was born dead.

The high court says West Virginia law clearly seeks to protect a threatened or harmed child from the person inflicting the injury or one failing to meet the child’s needs.

In the opinion, Davis cites “undisputed” evidence of the mother’s drug use.

The circuit court sought guidance in the matter after an Aug. 9 hearing on the father’s motion to dismiss the petition against him. He argued that abuse and neglect proceedings cannot be brought to protect a child who has not yet been born.

On March 4, 2016, the state Department of Health and Human resources filed an abuse and neglect petition against both parents, citing the mother’s “ongoing drug use” and the father’s history of drug abuse and drug dealing. The petition stated the father, who had been dating the mother for a year and a half, “knew or should have known of (mother’s) drug abuse during her pregnancy and took no steps to try and stop the same.”

The court’s opinion states West Virginia law allows “a finding of abuse to be based upon a parent’s knowledge that another person is harming his/her child.” It also rejects the father’s claim that the DHHR’s petition was brought to protect an unborn child because officials waited until after the child’s birth to file it.

Although the court’s opinion holds that evidence of drugs in a baby’s system is sufficient to bring abuse and neglect proceedings against both parents, the document notes in this case, the father’s alleged failure to stop the mother’s drug use has not yet been proven in court.

According to the opinion, the father testified previously that he had “discouraged” the mother’s drug use and asked her to leave their apartment “whenever he found evidence” that she was abusing drugs. The court record also shows the father drove the mother to an out-of-state clinic for treatment and paid for that treatment “when he could afford to do so.”

The case record also shows the father filed a mental hygiene petition less than a month after the child’s birth that resulted in her involuntary commitment to a mental health facility, the opinion states. The mother since has voluntarily relinquished her rights to the child, it notes.

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