Couple 'on heroin' pass out with four-year-old in the backseat
Photos of a man and woman passed out in a car with a four-year-old boy in the backseat after the pair had allegedly been taking heroin have been released by a police department in Ohio.
The images appeared on the City of East Liverpool's social media page and officials say they released the photos to raise awareness of the heroin epidemic in the state.
“We are well aware that some may be offended by these images and for that we are truly sorry, but it is time that the non drug using public sees what we are now dealing with on a daily basis,” it says in the caption accompanying the photos.
“The poison known as heroin has taken a strong grip on many communities not just ours, the difference is we are willing to fight this problem until it’s gone and if that means we offend a few people along the way we are prepared to deal with that.”
The incident took place as a police officer was driving on Thursday afternoon when he spotted a dark Ford Explorer driving erratically before screeching to a stop near a school bus that was dropping off children, according to an arrest report that was also shared on Facebook.
When the officer approached the vehicle, he noticed that the driver, identified as 47-year-old James Acord, appeared intoxicated. His head was bobbing back and forth, and his speech was almost unintelligible.
Acord told the officer that he was driving 50-year-old Rhonda Pasek to a hospital. The woman was slumped over in the front passenger seat.
According to police, Acord then made an attempt to drive away, but the officer quickly reached into the car and pulled the keys out of the ignition.
That is when the officer noticed Pasek's four-year-old in the backseat.
Paramedics arrived to administer Narcan - a drug used to counteract the effects of a heroin overdose - to Pasek and Acord, who by that point had passed out.
Acord was later charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated, endangering children, and slowing or stopping in a road.
He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 180 days in jail for each of the first two charges, according to The Weirton Daily Times. The last count of impeding traffic was dropped. His punishment includes a three-year license suspension and a $475 fine, reported the station WTOV.
Pasek was charged with endangering children, public intoxication and not wearing a seatbelt. She pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on $150,000 bond pending her next court appearance scheduled for September 15.
Her young son has been placed in the custody of Columbiana County Children’s Services.
