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Mom let son use crack, officials say
5-year-old boy reported using the drug 3 times
By Terry Horne
August 14, 2004
A former child-care worker is facing a child neglect charge after she helped her 5-year-old son smoke crack cocaine in her home, authorities said.
Her son told an interviewer that he had taken his mother's "medicine" three times.
Andrea Wilkey, 40, 700 block of East 93rd Street, was arrested after the boy tested positive for crack cocaine on Aug. 7.
Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said the boy told his grandmother what he had done and she took him to St. Vincent Hospital.
According to police, she told health care workers that her grandson was "acting funny." After a toxicology report revealed cocaine, a Child Protection Services caseworker was assigned to the case.
Brizzi termed the case horrendous.
"Sharing a crack pipe with your 5-year-old is no way to bond," he said.
The good news, he said, is that the boy appears to be OK.
At the hospital, the boy was taken into custody and then released into his grandmother's temporary care.
The caseworker and Marion County Sheriff's Detective Julie McHenry interviewed Wilkey on Sunday.
She admitted that she had smoked crack cocaine on Aug. 6 from a homemade "bong," a baby food jar with a glass pipe and tubing.
Wilkey said she left the room. When she returned, her son was sitting at the table before the bong. He said, "Come on. Let me do it," according to Wilkey.
The mother said she then used a lighter to ignite the crack cocaine, turning off the lighter after she saw smoke coming from her son's mouth.
Wilkey said she took her son to her mother's house the following day so she could go to a job interview.
Wilkey told investigators that she had been using cocaine "on and off" for about 10 years, and that her son had seen her using the bong before.
A spokeswoman with the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, which oversees CPS, could not be reached for comment.
When the boy was interviewed Monday, he said his mother took her medicine by placing white powder in a bowl and lighting it. The boy said, "I did it, too."
Brizzi said Wilkey had been employed as a child care worker at the Julian Center, a shelter for battered women. Ann DeLaney, executive director of the center, could not be reached for comment Friday night.
According to bail records, Wilkey had been working for about a month for a medical firm before her arrest.
She was being held in the Marion County Jail; bail was set at $25,000. An initial plea of not guilty was entered on her behalf during an initial hearing this week.
5-year-old boy reported using the drug 3 times
By Terry Horne
August 14, 2004
A former child-care worker is facing a child neglect charge after she helped her 5-year-old son smoke crack cocaine in her home, authorities said.
Her son told an interviewer that he had taken his mother's "medicine" three times.
Andrea Wilkey, 40, 700 block of East 93rd Street, was arrested after the boy tested positive for crack cocaine on Aug. 7.
Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said the boy told his grandmother what he had done and she took him to St. Vincent Hospital.
According to police, she told health care workers that her grandson was "acting funny." After a toxicology report revealed cocaine, a Child Protection Services caseworker was assigned to the case.
Brizzi termed the case horrendous.
"Sharing a crack pipe with your 5-year-old is no way to bond," he said.
The good news, he said, is that the boy appears to be OK.
At the hospital, the boy was taken into custody and then released into his grandmother's temporary care.
The caseworker and Marion County Sheriff's Detective Julie McHenry interviewed Wilkey on Sunday.
She admitted that she had smoked crack cocaine on Aug. 6 from a homemade "bong," a baby food jar with a glass pipe and tubing.
Wilkey said she left the room. When she returned, her son was sitting at the table before the bong. He said, "Come on. Let me do it," according to Wilkey.
The mother said she then used a lighter to ignite the crack cocaine, turning off the lighter after she saw smoke coming from her son's mouth.
Wilkey said she took her son to her mother's house the following day so she could go to a job interview.
Wilkey told investigators that she had been using cocaine "on and off" for about 10 years, and that her son had seen her using the bong before.
A spokeswoman with the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, which oversees CPS, could not be reached for comment.
When the boy was interviewed Monday, he said his mother took her medicine by placing white powder in a bowl and lighting it. The boy said, "I did it, too."
Brizzi said Wilkey had been employed as a child care worker at the Julian Center, a shelter for battered women. Ann DeLaney, executive director of the center, could not be reached for comment Friday night.
According to bail records, Wilkey had been working for about a month for a medical firm before her arrest.
She was being held in the Marion County Jail; bail was set at $25,000. An initial plea of not guilty was entered on her behalf during an initial hearing this week.
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