20-year-old Aliese Gatlin from Yelm, Washington was just recently charged with Unlawful Distribution of a Controlled Substance to a Person Under 18 (now there’s a mouthful), Third-Degree Assault of a Child and Criminal Mistreatment for putting Percocet in her nine-month-old daughter’s bottle to “help her sleep”.
The deed actually happened back in October. Aliese Marie Gatlin called 911 because she couldn’t get her daughter to wake up. When the EMTs arrived they found that the baby wasn’t breathing. When they tried to insert an IV the baby’s veins kept collapsing (most likely due to the Percocet, which depresses the respiratory system) and ended up having to insert it into her bone marrow. She was flown to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma.
Luckily the baby who turned one year old in January survived her ordeal and is currently in the custody of another relative. Gatlin cannot have any contact with her daughter, or any other children, as a condition of her bond. She pleaded Not Guilty to the charges this past Wednesday.
So why the Percocet in her bottle? According to her confession which she gave to police back in November, and which was taped, her daughter was “cranky as hell” and since Percocet made her sleepy she thought it would help her child sleep as well. Duh. The baby tested positive for opiates (most likely the Percocet) as well as for Xanax when she was admitted to the hospital.
Gatlin also told police that she was heavily involved with drugs such as meth, coke, heroin and marijuana. She told them that the baby’s father was abusive. He killed himself in September of 2009 by shooting himself in the head.
It’s really interesting that Aliese tried her hand at blogging and has quite a few articles up about parenting and babies. I didnt “How Not to Put the Baby to Bed” there while I was perusing though.
