A woman is due to appear in East Ridge Municipal Court on Tuesday on a charge of Child Abuse after giving birth to a baby allegedly addicted to drugs.
Jacqueline Nicole McRoberts, 31, of a Pleasant Street address, was arrested only last week. According to an affidavit of complaint, McRoberts gave birth to a child at Erlanger Hospital for Women East on Dec. 18, 2016. When McRoberts was in the hospital, she tested positive for amphetamine, methadone and opiate drugs.
According to the complaint, the newborn’s meconium (the earliest stool of an infant which is composed of materials ingested during the time the infant spends in the uterus) also tested positive for the same drugs. The complaint states that the child was diagnosed with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome due to exposure to addictive opiates while still in the womb.
A caseworker with Child Protective Services interviewed McRoberts, who admitted using the illicit narcotics without a valid prescription while pregnant.
According to the complaint, McRoberts’ use of the drugs while she was pregnant, adversely affected the child’s health, requiring the infant to be housed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for about two months.
_ 950 Spring Creek Rd.: Police were called to Parkridge East Hospital on Saturday regarding a disorder, after a woman who had been brought to the hospital for a mental health evaluation escaped.
According to an affidavit of complaint, when police arrived they were told the woman had taken off through the ambulance entry and crossed the street to a convenience store and called 911 for a taxi. According to the complaint, police found the woman at the Spring Creek Garden Apartment complex. When officers tried to speak with her the woman began yelling and cursing “in a manner to cause public annoyance and alarm.”
The report states that the woman – later identified as Ashley Michelle Moore of a Bridge Circle address in Chattanooga – entered the breezeway of the apartment complex. When an officer tried to stop her, Moore ran up the stairs, turned and tried to punch the officer. Instead, the report states, she struck herself in the face. The officer, in eluding the punch, fell on the stairs and possibly injured her back.
The report states that two other officers took Moore to the ground. Moore then kicked one officer in the groin and continued to resist. Ultimately, “hobble restraints” were employed to “keep the defendant from harming herself and officers.”
Moore was jailed on charges of Disorderly Conduct and Assault on Police. She is due to appear in municipal court on April 11.
