Washington Parents Accused of Injecting Their Kids With Heroin

A Washington state couple is facing numerous charges after police said the parents kept their three young children in a home littered with rat droppings and drug needles and injected them with heroin, which they called “feel good medicine.” Ashlee Hutt, 24, and Mac Leroy McIver, 25, have been charged with unlawful delivery of a controlled substance to a person under 18, criminal mistreatment in the second degree and assault of a child in the second degree, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in September in Pierce County Superior Court.

“The kids lived in deplorable conditions,” Pierce County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Detective Ed Troyer said. “It wasn't a good living situation even without the issue of heroin.”

Over a six-month period starting in May 2015, Child Protective Services investigated Hutt and McIver's alleged mistreatment of their 6-year-old boy and his two younger sisters, who are 2 and 4. The three children have been placed into protective custody, Troyer said.

Troyer said both Hutt and McIver have pleaded not guilty. It's unclear whether the two have attorneys. It would take 10 months for prosecutors to press charges. Police finally arrested McIver this past September. They also took Hutt into custody -- but only after a judge issued a bench warrant for her arrest when she missed a court date.

The judge set bond at $100,000 for Hutt and McIver, according to Pierce County Corrections booking records. They both remain in custody. Hutt's jury trial is set for December 20. McIver has a court date scheduled for February 16, 2017. The judge, citing a "serious and imminent threat" to the children, also issued a restraining order that prohibited both parents from contacting their children or being within 1,000 feet of their residences, schools, or future places of employment.

Source-Medindia