A Wisconsin daycare worker was criminally charged after authorities found cocaine in a 1-year-old boy’s system.
Passion Watson, a daycare worker at KinderCare in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, was charged with possession of cocaine on or near certain places after a boy who attended the daycare was left with body bruises and cocaine in his system, Fox 6 Now reported. Now the boy’s mother, Kimberly Hopson, is calling for additional charges to be brought against Watson.
“My life is forever changed. How could you do that to an innocent baby?” Hopson said during a press conference on Wednesday, May, 29. “Every day, he is coming here thinking he’s safe. I can’t imagine how scared he was.”
Her suspicions grew after she discovered a bruised nose, a black eye, scratches, and marks on her son Prince when she picked him up from daycare on May 15. She took him to Children’s Wisconsin to be evaluated and a urine test found cocaine in the baby’s system.
Police arrived at Hopson’s home to search the place but found no evidence of drug possession.
“Can you imagine (Child Protective Services) coming to your house threatening to take your kids over cocaine?” she said. “That’s ridiculous.”
Authorities went on to search the daycare and a K-9 found cocaine inside Watson’s unzipped backpack, which was located inside an unlocked closet with a toddler’s jacket on top. It remains unclear how the baby ingested the cocaine but Hopson wants Watson, who posted a $1,500 bond last week, charged with child neglect in addition to the drug possession charges, due to bruises on her son’s body.
Since ingesting the cocaine, Hopson said her baby boy hasn’t been the same.
“He’s just reckless, he’s agitated – like he doesn’t play with his toys,” she said.
Hopson was joined at the press conference with with her lawyer, civil rights attorney B’Ivory LaMarr, who blasted the daycare for putting the baby’s health at risk.
“He was… poisoned by the same individuals who were supposed to safeguard his well-being,” LaMarr said.
Watson told authorities that she only does cocaine socially about two times a month and doesn’t know how the cocaine was found inside her bag or how the boy was exposed to the drugs. She was only given a misdemeanor drug possession, but LaMarr says it should be more.
“That is not enough. We are seeking neglect charges, which have been forwarded to the District Attorney’s office and we demand that these charges be pursued,” LaMarr said.
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