KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Authorities said Monday that a toddler was rushed to the hospital in cardiac arrest after chewing on one of his mother's cigarettes laced with PCP.
Kansas City police detectives found PCP-laced cigarettes on the bathroom sink as well as the floor and the living room couch inside the home where the baby lived.
The Jackson County Prosecutor's Office on Monday charged Velma C. Scott with one felony count of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
Kansas City Police Department detectives responded Sunday afternoon to Children's Mercy hospital after test results showed a child who had been rushed to the emergency room had ingested PCP.
Court documents say that police and fire officials were called to 1616 Bellefontaine Apt. 5 at 11:42 a.m. Sunday. They found a 21-month-old boy in full cardiac arrest. Less than six hours later the test results were back showing the child had PCP in his system.
The boy's aunt told police that the baby was born drug exposed and she believed her sister was high on PCP. The suspect's sister said her nephew had not been "acting right" for several days.
Detectives then searched the residence on Bellefontaine and found PCP-laced cigarettes or clear liquid PCP in the bedroom, kitchen, living room and bathroom.
Scott denied using PCP currently and told detectives a friend had been inside her home using PCP, according to court documents. She admitted to smoking PCP while pregnant with her son. Court documents say Scott told detectives her son "may have 'chewed' on a cigarette," left by her friend but claimed she had no knowledge of the PCP being found throughout her home.
"It is not right," said Dekondee Bowah, Scott's next door neighbor. "For someone to get drugs and live closer to where I live, no, I don't like it."
Bowah says in the two years she has lived at that apartment complex, she has never seen Scott's toddler son and has only seen Scott once in passing.
"When she sees me, she says 'hi'. I said 'hi' as she passed."
Bowah said Scott acted normally and would never have guessed what was happening on the other side of her apartment walls.
Scott is being held on $35,000 bond and has been ordered to have no contact with her toddler or anyone under 17 years old. She was cited earlier this year for refusing a breathalyzer test.
