KINGWOOD — A Kingwood woman is charged with child abuse creating risk of injury after an officer said he encountered noxious fumes and drug paraphernalia near a 4-year-old in a car with her.
Melony Sue Shaffer, 39, was charged Friday and freed on $50,000 bond.
According to the criminal complaint by Preston Deputy T.A. Nestor, he was dispatched to check on a motorist at the intersection of Herring and Long Hollow roads. Shaffer was unconscious behind the steering wheel of a 2005 Ford Five Hundred.
The vehicle was running and blocking one lane of each road, Nestor said. A small child, whom he later learned was the 4-year-old, was lying on the rear seat, unrestrained.
“Extreme winter weather conditions were in the area and had caused the roadways to be dangerous,” according to the complaint.
After Shaffer became alert, Nestor said he noticed “an extremely obnoxious smell coming from the vehicle.” He recognized it as being a chemically based narcotic such as meth, he wrote.
Shaffer was “confused, excited and had trouble answering questions,” but admitted to smoking meth and being on Suboxone. Having consent to search and probable cause, Nestor said, he searched the car.
He found several plastic bags, a scale with white powder and a razor blade on it, and other drug-related paraphernalia.
“While performing this brief search the [officer] became lightheaded, dizzy and had pressure manifest in his head, along with a burning sensation” on his upper lip. He attributed this to the smell.
While gathering items for the child from the back seat, he found a used glass pipe with burnt residue on the floorboard. The child could have stepped on the pipe, breaking it and allowing the residue to enter his blood stream, Deputy Nestor said.
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