Mom gets 4 years for breast-feeding baby after using cocaine

[Powdered Toast Man]

Mom gets 4 years for breast-feeding baby after using cocaine

A 37-year-old woman has been sentenced to four years in prison for breast-feeding her 14-month-old after using cocaine, causing the baby to have a seizure and nearly die.

Corrina Annette Richardson reached a plea agreement with prosecutors Monday and pleaded guilty to injury to a child in exchange for the prison term. Jasmine Thompson, now 3, lives with her grandmother and is doing well.

"This is the first type of case of breast-feeding I am aware of," said prosecutor Mitch Poe, chief of the Crimes Against Children Unit of the Tarrant County district attorney's office. "We're satisfied with the four years in prison. Hopefully, it wil
l send a message to other parents who are doing drugs while breast-feeding."

Richardson's attorney, Gregory Gray, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

When Jasmine was rushed by ambulance to the hospital July 2, 2004, her mother initially told officials and relatives that the baby had struck her head on a dresser while being held by an older sibling.

Tests revealed that there was nothing wrong with the toddler's head. But Jasmine had cocaine in her system.

After being confronted with the evidence, Richardson -- a mother of six -- admitted that she had breast-fed her baby while using the drug.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Richardson told Detective R.J. Zomper, who investigated the case, that she used crack cocaine almost every evening and sometimes breast-fed the baby and sometimes gave her a bottle.

She said she had learned in treatment years earlier that cocaine would be in the breast milk and that she had tried to dilute it by drinking milk, the
affidavit states.

Dr. Gary Wimbish, a toxicologist, told the detective at that time that the amount of benzoylecgonine -- a metabolite of cocaine -- in Jasmine's system revealed that it was not just a "one-time occurrence" but a result of "chronic feeding," the affidavit states.

According to the affidavit, Dr. Jamye Coffman, medical director of the Child Advocacy and Resource Evaluation team at Cook Children's Medical Center, said the drug affected the baby so severely that "if medical treatment had not been sought, this could have resulted in severe brain damage or even death."

Jasmine, who spent more than a week in the hospital, now lives, along with three siblings, with 65-year-old Irma Scott, paternal grandmother of two of Richardson's children, including Jasmine.

Scott said that raising the children -- ages 3, 5, 12 and 15 -- has been difficult but that they are all thriving.

"Jasmine is doing wonderful," Scott said. "She has proven to be a real smart little girl. Sh
e hasn't shown any effects."

Scott said the children attend church and school programs and take part in extracurricular activities. She said she took them this summer to Washington, D.C., where they visited the White House and the Smithsonian.

"It has been an uphill journey, but I chose to do this, so I put my all into it," Scott said. Her children, including Jasmine's father, help out financially when they can, she said. "I'm doing the best I can."

Scott said Richardson was out on bond for a while and had supervised visits with the children but rarely saw them. When she went back to jail after being accused of violating a bond condition, she and Scott communicated through letters, Scott said.

"I write her, and I send her pictures, you know," Scott said. "I let Jasmine know her mother is named Corrina, but she calls me 'Mommy' and 'Grandma.'"

Scott said she wishes the best for Richardson and her fight against drug addiction.

"I hate that their mom has to go" to
prison, Scott said. "But you put yourself in those positions, and you have to pay.

"I'm just thankful that we are doing fine."

[3 Ks]

WARNING! Image not for weak stomached!

[Buster]

How touching.

The toxic, nourishing breast of the ghetto.

A regular jigaboo Madonna.

[James_Elliot]

Wow... I thought that first picture was a man. And the second picture about some Somali nigger... Hmm... No sympathy here. Those niggers are in their own fault making war, famine, and destructions among themselves. Whites don't need to help them... Those niggers can never stand up on their own two feet.