XPost: alt.drugs.meth, alt.usa-sucks

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2015/09/meth_addict_who_left_shivering.html

A 22-year-old methamphetamine addict who left her 1-year-old daughter
alone in a tent in a North Portland backyard overnight as temperatures
dipped to 45 degrees was sentenced Thursday to 10 days in jail.

Taylor Marie Marcus has already spent 25 days in jail and is scheduled
to be released late Thursday. Earlier in the day, she pleaded guilty to
meth possession and first-degree criminal mistreatment for failing to
care for her daughter, who was one month shy of her second birthday when
police rescued her earlier this year.

Portland police were called to the North James Street home at 3:30 a.m.
on May 7 after a neighbor called 911 to report hearing the girl
screaming for the previous hour.

An officer stepped into the backyard to discover no adult in sight and
the toddler, wearing thin pajamas and a urine-soaked diaper, crying and shivering, according to a probable cause affidavit. No blanket was
covering the girl.

The officer brought the toddler to his patrol car to warm up, and she
continued to shiver for 15 minutes. Paramedics determined that her core
body temperature was low and so was her blood sugar, so they took her to Randall Children's Hospital.

Meanwhile, a man who was dating the toddler's grandmother walked out of
the garage. He told police that he'd been checking on the child because
he'd heard her crying, but he thought "it's her mother's thing. I just
figured she would deal with her," according to the affidavit.

The man said the toddler's mother was sleeping in a car parked on the
street. An officer found Marcus, who also is known by the last name of
Kuhn, sleeping with a blanket wrapped around her. Police say a meth pipe
with residue was sticking out of Marcus' shirt.

Marcus told police that she usually slept with the girl in the tent, but
she'd just "passed out for an hour" in the car. She later admitted to
police that the girl had been outside for the past 5 ½ hours.

Police say Marcus repeatedly complained about being cold while talking
to officers outside.

While being booked into jail, a corrections deputy who searched Marcus
for contraband asked her to open her mouth. A baggie of meth fell out.

Marcus was released from jail less than two weeks later, with an
agreement that she wouldn't use drugs as her case worked its way through
the court system. But within two months, she failed a urine test when it
tested positive for meth, according to court papers. A judge issued an
arrest warrant, and Marcus was booked back into jail in late August.

She has remained there ever since.

Marcus' only prior criminally related conviction was in 2011 when she
was 18, for violating a city code that prohibits selling, possessing or consuming drugs in a city park.

At her plea and sentencing hearing in Multnomah County Circuit Court,
Marcus didn't apologize or make any statements.

Judge Angel Lopez sentenced her to three years of probation, in addition
to the jail time. Marcus must undergo drug and alcohol treatment, a psychological evaluation and parenting classes. She also must stay away
from her daughter unless it's approved by her probation officer and child-welfare workers.

It's unclear who's caring for the toddler now, but it's not her mother.
The girl is no longer in state custody.

-- Aimee Green

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