Post by Scumhunter on Sept 21, 2019 18:56:13 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: bangordailynews.com)
From the Bangor Daily News:
Police are searching for the father of the 1-year-old girl who died from fentanyl exposure in Bangor almost a year ago.
Bangor police have issued an arrest warrant for Shane Smith, the city’s police department said Friday, two days after the girl’s mother appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to charges of child endangerment and possession of a Schedule Z drug.
Smith, 31, of Winterport faces a charge of endangering the welfare of a child, a Class D crime, which is the same charge Kimberly Nelligan, the mother of the 1-year-old who died Oct. 19, 2018, is facing.
On that day last year, the Bangor police and fire departments responded to Nelligan’s home at Holiday Trailer Park in Bangor after she reported that her daughter was unresponsive. The child was taken to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center and pronounced dead.
The Maine Medical Examiner’s office told Bangor police that the cause of death was acute fentanyl exposure, and the child had to have ingested it in some fashion, according to court documents.
On the day of the 1-year-old’s death, she had spent the day with Smith and Nelligan, according to court documents. Smith and Nelligan were not transparent about the events of the day, initially stating they spent the day at parks in Brewer and then admitting that they had spent part of the day in Brownville where they went for a drug deal, according to court documents.
Smith told Bangor police in December 2018 that he had witnessed Nelligan rub heroin residue on the baby’s gums about 15 times in the two months leading up to the 1-year-old’s death. She had done it to her other children as well, Smith said.
When he spoke with police, Smith was being held at the Penobscot County Jail in Bangor. He had been arrested before for having contact with Nelligan, which violated the terms of his probation.
Nelligan admitted to Bangor police that she was a heroin user and that Smith provided the drug to her.
Smith had been in contact with detectives and had made arrangements to turn himself, Bangor police said Friday. But Smith did not keep his appointment and stopped responding to detectives, police said.
bangordailynews.com/2019/09/20/news/bangor/police-looking-for-father-of-bangor-1-year-old-who-died-from-ingesting-fentanyl/
Thoughts? Based on news reports, Smith was still at large at least as of September 20th, 2019. Also, articles about this case just state to call your local police department if you have information on Smith's whereabouts and don't give a specific number to call with tips.
Obviously, this case is pretty outrageous. I've been on the record stating we need to help and not punish addicts- but this case is different. Allegedly exposing your child to heroin residue and/or watching your significant other expose your child's body to drugs is the same as if you gave your child alcohol- which is legal- or watched your significant other give your child legal alcohol and they died from taking it in. If you remember the Errol and Tonya Victor case from America's Most Wanted, Tonya went to jail also after capture for purposely standing back and doing nothing while Errol beat his young son to his eventual death. This in my opinion is like a similar scenario and in my opinion, based on the alleged account, Shane and Kimberly should thank their lucky stars they weren't charged with manslaughter. (As I think they should have been).
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