Northeast News
Jan. 6, 2010

A 32-year-old woman faces a charge of child endangerment after her 21-month-old child ingested the drug PCP.

Emergency responders took the child, who was in cardiac arrest, to Chidren’s Mercy Hospital Dec. 27, where toxicology reports indicated the child had ingested the drug. Velma Scott, of 1616 Bellefontaine St., admitted to having taken PCP, but not in the past year. Her sister, Stephanie Scott, told medical staff Velma had taken the drug while pregnant with the baby.

Detectives found cigarettes in Velma Scott’s bathroom sink, in a purse in her bedroom, near a trashcan in her kitchen and on her couch that appeared to have been dipped in an unknown liquid. The cigarettes, according to police, omitted a strong chemical odor commonly associated with PCP. Detectives also found two glass bottles containing an unknown liquid with the same smell.

Police arrested Scott on Dec. 27, and she initially stated she did not use drugs. She said a friend had come to her apartment on Dec. 26 and smoked PCP in her living room while she and the child were in the bedroom. She admitted she smoked the drug while pregnant and to having smoked it a week earlier in a park.

She denied any knowledge of the PCP found around her apartment.