Justices say drugs in home may not endanger kids

The Utah Supreme Court has ruled a child must have "reasonable" access to drugs in order for a parent to be charged under the child-endangerment statute.

Prosecutors say the ruling narrows their ability to charge drug-dealing parents under the statute, but they have already worked on a remedy to amend the law during the next legislative session.

The ruling stems from two separate drug cases in which two women were arrested on drug and drug paraphernalia possession charges while children were in the homes. Both defendants were charged with child endangerment.

In one case, parole officers visited a home to conduct an inspection. During the inspection, officers noticed that four children were in the home, a 2-year-old asleep on a sofa and three in an upstairs bedroom, including an infant. Upon entering the adults' bedroom, they noticed an open purse sitting on top of a dresser with a plastic bag containing what appeared to be drugs. The parolee's girlfriend claimed that the bag belonged to her, and she was arrested along with her boyfriend. Further investigation turned up another bag with two rocks of cocaine.

In a second case, Salt Lake County sheriff's deputies searched a woman's home on a tip there was a meth lab. When deputies arrived, the woman appeared to be moving out of the home. One deputy testified that he "could smell the odor of a methamphetamine lab from the curb." In a detached garage officers found items indicating a meth lab. In the home's basement, officers found a glass pipe wrapped in tissue paper on a closet shelf. In another downstairs bedroom, methamphetamine was found. During the investigation, the woman's 13-year-old daughter was in the living room.

In both cases, the women were charged with possession of either drugs or drug paraphernalia and child endangerment. Both then argued in court that the state failed to establish enough probable cause. The court, however, bound them over on the charges.

In Friday's ruling, the justices said that a case needs more than just the presence of drugs in a home in order for child endangerment to apply. The law "requires a real, physical risk of harm to a child; the child must have the reasonable capacity to access the substance or paraphernalia or to be subject to its harmful effects, such as by inhalation," the justices wrote in a unanimous opinion.

However, in a footnote, the justices said that a child sleeping in a residence where a meth lab was operating "would be exposed under the terms of the statute because the child will experience harmful effects from the substance," similar to exposure to a "contagious disease."

Assistant Utah Attorney General Laura Dupaix said the ruling limits the ability of prosecutors to use the law against drug-dealing parents.

"I think the opinion does narrow the statute from what we believed the statute to cover; however, I believe the opinion still allows the state to prosecute parents who have their illegal substances, or meth labs, in a place where children can still access it," Dupaix said.

The Supreme Court has remanded both cases back to the district court to determine under the recent ruling if the women should be bound over for trial on the charges.

Dupaix said draft legislation is expected to be introduced during the next session of the Utah Legislature to amend the law, making the ruling moot.

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