Everett mother accused of abusing infant son

Published 11:03 pm Tuesday, August 5, 2008

EVERETT — When an 8-week-old Everett boy was taken to the hospital last week, doctors discovered the infant had a broken leg, fractured ribs and was severely malnourished.

Police were called and arrested the boy’s mother, Jessica Miller, 18, on suspicion of felony child abuse.

“It’s very troubling when we discover that these young children are injured in this way,” Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said Tuesday.

The baby is recovering in foster care, according to court papers. Miller told police she loved her son and was sorry for what she’d done, according to court documents. She said she used methamphetamine during her pregnancy. She also told police that since the boy’s birth she had stopped taking medication to treat mental illness.

Miller appears to be a troubled young woman, who was “in no way up to the task of caring for an infant,” Snohomish County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Mark Roe wrote in Snohomish County Superior Court charging papers.

The documents said Miller confessed to being angry when she squeezed the baby’s chest and stomach as many as four times for up to two minutes. She didn’t stop, “until she realized what she was doing,” the documents said.

The mother told investigators she yanked the infant’s leg while changing diapers when the child wouldn’t hold still. She told police she has struggled with drug abuse, and stopped using methamphetamine late in the first trimester of her pregnancy, the documents said.

Miller also said she has been diagnosed as bipolar, and had stopped taking her medicine to treat the mental illness since her baby’s birth, which “added to her anger and frustration,” the court documents said.

She told police she felt stressed out and frustrated and that her anger sometimes took over.

Illegal drug use and mental illness can contribute to dangerous complications during pregnancy and for young mothers, experts said.

Nationwide, about 3.5 percent of pregnant women report using illegal drugs, said Dr. Barry Lester, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Brown University in Providence, R. I., and director of the Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk.

A study of pregnant women in areas known to have widespread methamphetamine problems showed about 6 percent of pregnant mothers reported using meth, he said.

Doctors still are studying what happens to babies when their mothers use methamphetamine during pregnancy. It’s clear the powerful drug can have detrimental effects, Lester said.

“Prenatal meth use can have an impact on the baby’s weight and on the baby’s behavior,” he said.

During the first few months of a pregnancy, a child’s nervous system is formed.

“This stuff definitely gets into the baby’s brain and you’d expect it would have an impact,” said Dr. Jim Walsh, medical director of addiction recovery services at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle.

Powerful drugs to treat serious mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder also can harm a developing fetus, doctors said.

Depending on how the patient is handling the illness, different drugs can be prescribed that may be less harmful to the fetus, Walsh said.

Still, it’s important to maintain a balance and prevent the disease from taking over, he said.

Even with the lower-risk medicine, if the mother is managing the illness, “that’s good for the baby,” Walsh said.

People with extreme bipolar illness can have psychotic episodes that result in days of erratic behavior, said Dr. Ed Walker, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Washington. Still, he was doubtful that the baby was harmed because of the mother’s illness.

“That’s not bipolar,” Walker said. “That’s using the diagnosis as a kind of expiation.”

On July 23, Miller called state officials to ask for help with her son, said Steve Williams, a spokesman for the state Department of Social and Health Services.

She told officials her new baby wasn’t gaining weight, Williams said.

The call alerted Child Protective Services to the case. On July 28, when she brought the child to a hospital, officials called police and the child was taken into state care, Williams said.

Miller, who weighs 260 pounds, initially told doctors she accidentally had rolled on top of the baby while sleeping, the documents said. She later changed her story.

In July, Everett police were called to Miller’s apartment. The floor was sticky from spilled beer and bottles were strewn about, the documents said.

Prosecutors said Miller has a history of juvenile crimes of dishonesty and has in the past lied to police, giving them a false name.

She reportedly is being evicted from her apartment and told police she would do anything to avoid jail, the documents said.

On Tuesday prosecutors filed a second-degree abuse of child charge against Miller. She remained behind bars at the Snohomish County Jail, held in lieu of $25,000 bail.

Reporter Jackson Holtz: 425-339-3437 or jholtz@heraldnet.com.