Pubdate: Tue, 06 Mar 2007
Source: Grand Rapids Press (MI)
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-35/1173188102311610.xml&coll=6
Copyright: 2007 Grand Rapids Press
Contact:  http://www.gr.mlive.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/171
Author: Theresa D. McClellan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

FRIEND CHARGED IN OVERDOSE DEATH OF GIRL, 13

HASTINGS -- Nearly a year after a 13-year-old Shelbyville girl died 
of a drug overdose, authorities have charged a 15-year-old former 
classmate with giving her the pills that caused her death.

Susan Falvo, 15, is charged with delivery of a controlled substance 
causing death. She also is accused of possessing methadone, vicodin 
and marijuana.

Two of those prescription drugs -- methadone and vicodin -- were 
found in the body of Falvo's friend, Lexy Purdum, when she died in 
her home May 6.

After a lengthy state police investigation, Falvo was charged in 
Barry County Juvenile Court on Feb. 20. Initially released to her 
parents' custody, Falvo, also of Shelbyville, was back in court 
Monday on reports she violated the terms of her release by drinking 
and missing school. She now remains jailed in the county's juvenile 
detention center.

Barry County Prosecutor Tom Evans said by charging Falvo in juvenile 
court, he hopes to save her from Purdum's fate. Being charged as a 
juvenile also could spare her the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence.

A conviction as an adult for the drug delivery charge would carry a 
possible punishment of life in prison.

"No one is going to prison for a number of years," Evans said. "Our 
goal is to have this person not wind up like Lexy. We are just trying 
to do our best to intervene."

If Falvo is convicted, she could become a ward of the court, be 
placed on intensive probation or be put into some type of residential 
treatment facility.

"I hope I don't seem too grim here, but they're little kids and this 
is awful," Evans said.

Evans said Falvo "has a problem with drugs and that is the main 
reason we're pursuing this case."

He said listening to the 911 calls made when Purdum's family 
discovered the eighth-grader's body were sobering.

"I know I only experienced a tiny, tiny portion of what Lexy's folks 
had to deal with. It was really heartbreaking to listen to the 911 
call and read the autopsy and think of this 13-year-old girl on a 
metal slab, and we don't want that to happen," Evans said.

Lexy Purdum, a student at Delton Kellogg Middle School, died three 
days shy of her 14th birthday. At the time, her family said the teen 
was recovering from a yearlong battle with drugs. The day before her 
death, she went on a shopping trip. When she came home, family 
members said, she showed signs of using drugs. Her mother, Valerie 
Purdum, went to awaken her around 12:30 p.m. the following day and 
found her dead.

"She took vicodin and methadone pills and she had a very high level 
of methadone in her body at the time she died," Evans said. Purdum 
died of a "mixed-drug intoxication," according to her autopsy report, 
police said.

When he became prosecutor last fall, Evans said, he discovered the 
state police investigation into her death still had some loose ends. 
Authorities at the Hastings post finished their work in December.

He described Purdum as a girl who "seemed to have a wide-open future. 
She was intelligent, creative and this is terribly sad."

Neither Purdum nor Falvo had court records. Their families could not 
be reached for comment.