Louisiana authorities have jailed a mother after her 14-month-old boy landed in the hospital severely intoxicated with alcohol.
Genesis Harrell, 27, faces one count of cruelty to juveniles, according to the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office.
The incident occurred in mid-May at an apartment complex on Longridge Avenue in Baton Rouge, police said.
On May 18, Harrell called 911 about her little boy, according to an arrest warrant obtained by Baton Rouge-based WBRZ.
The defendant later told police she called emergency services that day because her son was “not behaving normally,” according to the charging document. Harrell allegedly explained that her normally active child went limp when she tried to pick him up, and that when he woke up from a nap, his condition had not changed.
Doctors brought the child to Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital where initial testing showed he had a blood-alcohol content (BAC) of approximately 0.305%, according to the arrest warrant obtained by The Advocate. In the Pelican State, the legal BAC for driving is 0.08% – meaning the toddler’s BAC was nearly four times the amount where an adult would be considered too drunk to drive.
The little boy received a diagnosis of alcohol intoxication and suffered a series of knock-on ailments including acute respiratory failure, hypoxia and hypercapnia – a condition where there is excessive carbon dioxide in the bloodstream – according to law enforcement. Medical professionals said that absent intervention, the child would have likely suffered respiratory arrest, brain injury or death.
The defendant, for her part, told police her son ate breakfast at 11 a.m. before falling asleep around 1 p.m. on the day he went limp, according to the charging document. She said she lived at the residence with her boyfriend and that he was inside working from home that day. Police, however, wrote in the warrant that the boyfriend was not responsible for the child and that Harrell was the sole legal guardian.
Investigators said the boy’s mother admitted she was also inside the residence when the incident occurred and that there was alcohol in the unit. Harrell insisted the alcohol was secured, and not accessible by the child, but could not explain how the little boy had ingested such a large amount of alcohol to become so intoxicated, police said.
During a follow-up investigation, police asked the defendant a series of questions about the incident, according to the warrant.
Those questions included a request about the type and location of the alcohol, who last handled the alcohol, the nature of her supervision of her child, the victim’s movements and activities on the day in question, and, again, how the child could have obtained such a life-threatening amount of alcohol, police said. Instead, Harrell allegedly declined to speak further with investigators, according to the court document.
Law enforcement went on to say that Harrell demonstrated “such disregard for the victim’s interests and safety that her conduct constituted a gross deviation below the standard of care expected of a reasonably careful parent.”
Authorities are detaining the defendant in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison with no bond as of this writing.
The Louisiana Department of Child and Family Services placed the toddler in its custody, and the child remains in the pediatric intensive care unit, according to law enforcement.
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