OMAHA, NEBRASKA - A 4-year-old girl being questioned about alleged child abuse volunteered the information that her mother and her mother’s boyfriend had taught her to smoke marijuana.Omaha Police Officer Sarah Spizzirri testified in Douglas County Court on Wednesday that the girl began talking about “smoking joints” with her mother, Lisa Schuchard, 25, and Christopher Gladden, 23, during an interview Feb. 13.
The 4-year-old told the Project Harmony worker that Schuchard and Gladden smoke joints “and that she also smokes joints,” Spizzirri said. “She described that she also smokes from a bong.”
Spizzirri, who observed the interview, asked the interviewer to take a break so they could decide how to make sure the little girl was not just talking about watching her mother smoke marijuana.
When the interview resumed, the girl said “that she breathes the smoke in and breathes it out and then coughs,” Spizzirri said. “Then, she said, everybody would laugh.”
The girl also demonstrated how to use a bong by cupping her hand “in a circle” and “tilting the bong toward her while lighting it,” Spizzirri said.
Spizzirri’s testimony came during a preliminary hearing on whether Schuchard should stand trial on a charge of felony child abuse. Schuchard faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Doug Johnson, Schuchard’s public defender, asked Spizzirri if she was aware that the child had tested negative for marijuana. Spizzirri said she had been told of the test results.
Johnson argued that smoking marijuana in front of children, while not smart, is not a crime and that a more appropriate charge would be misdemeanor child abuse.
Judge John Huber disagreed and referred Schuchard’s case to Douglas County District Court, where she will face the felony charge. He also kept Schuchard’s bail amount at $25,000. She must pay 10 percent, or $2,500, to be released from jail.
There is so much wrong with this story, which I brought to you back in February. While everyone focuses on the mom who allegedly taught her four-year-old how to smoke pot, not much is made of the fact that the child protective services were called because the girl showed signs of physical abuse - a bruise to her cheek and bruises on her backside and upper thighs. The boyfriend, Gladden, pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor child abuse counts for hitting her with a belt and slamming a door into her cheek.
But the boyfriend only got six months, because he immediately pleaded guilty to the misdemeanors. The mom held out, since she says she never hit her kids. In the meantime the child tells the bong smoking story, so now the mom is facing a felony count and five years. The boyfriend can’t be tried for that because it would amount to double jeopardy.
Also lost in the noise is the police report that the kids had easy access to the guns that were in the house. Now there should be where a felony child abuse case should be made. The gun could kill the kid, the marijuana could not.
Furthermore, the child tested negative for marijuana metabolites, and we all know how long those stay in the system. Can the state even prove that the child smoked marijuana, or is it possible the child saw marijuana smoking and is imitating it, like children do?
Regardless, even if the child did smoke marijuana, it’s not a crime that should be punished more severely than beating the kid with a belt and hitting the kid with a door. I could understand a felony charge for giving the kid cocaine, heroin, or meth, because any dosage of those could kill the kid. But no dosage of marijuana will kill the kid, and it would take repeated heavy doses (the kind that would show up on a metabolite screen) to inflict any serious damage.
I don’t at all advocate allowing anyone under eighteen to smoke marijuana without strong medical need and supervision. But I place allegedly making the four-year-old smoke marijuana as worse than letting her drink sugary caffeinated sodas and fat-laden drive-thru meals, but better than letting her smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol.
