Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Contact:  (414) 224-8280
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/
Pubdate: Tue, 24 Mar 1998
Author: Lisa Sink of the Journal Sentinel staff

'COCAINE MOM' HEARING CLOSED

Waukesha -- A judge Monday ordered all parties connected to the "cocaine
mom" case to remain mum about a closed-door hearing requested by the
district attorney, who wants to determine whether the woman, who is seven
months pregnant, tested positive for drugs.

Circuit Judge J. Mac Davis closed Monday's hearing to a Journal Sentinel
reporter and later declined to make public any decision on the release of
the records.

"It's a confidential case," Davis said. "There's nothing I can say."

District Attorney Paul Bucher said that he could not say whether his office
was granted access to the results of the drug test.

"Judge Davis has requested that we not discuss the matter outside of
court," Bucher said. "It wasn't a gag order per se. But he did indicate
that the parties should not discuss the matter."

But Bucher said that he still wants to review the results to determine
whether the Waukesha woman, 26, had violated her bail on a drug
paraphernalia charge by using drugs.

If she did, Bucher said, he would seek to have her bail revoked and would
likely charge her with bail jumping, a move that could land her in jail or
drug treatment for her final weeks of pregnancy.

"We're still in the same mode," Bucher said. "We want to obtain access to
those results" for a possible bail jumping charge, he said.

Craig Mastantuono, an assistant state public defender representing the
woman, also remained tight-lipped.

"I can't comment on the hearing today," he said. "It dealt with
confidential matters."

Asked about his reaction to Bucher's request for records, Mastantuono said:
"I don't think it's a criminal justice issue. I think it's a public health
issue."

The woman, known only as Angela to protect the identity of her children,
made national headlines in 1995 when county officials obtained a Juvenile
Court order to detain her to protect her unborn son from her cocaine abuse.

In that case, Angela was eight months pregnant when she was forced into a
local drug abuse treatment facility until she delivered her son, who is now
2 1/2, healthy and living in a foster home.

Angela and her attorneys appealed the detention, and last spring the state
Supreme Court ruled that the detention was illegal because the fetus was
not a child.

Two weeks ago, Angela acknowledged to a reporter that she had failed a drug
test during the first week of March. She has been ordered to undergo
biweekly drug tests as part of a Juvenile Court case involving one of her
two older children, who are living with their grandmother.

Mastantuono would not comment on whether his client was abusing drugs or
endangering the health of her viable fetus.

"She's very concerned about it," he said of her unborn son. "I don't know
if the baby is going to be harmed."

Angela declined to comment on the case as she left the Courthouse on Monday.

She was arrested and charged in December with misdemeanor possession of
drug paraphernalia.

At her initial court appearance on that charge, Court Commissioner Gerald
Janis released her from custody on a $250 signature bond with conditions
that she not possess or consume any illegal drugs, that she attend all
court appearances in the case and that she not commit any other crimes.