Source: Fresno Bee, The 
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Website: http://www.fresnobee.com/generic/story/0,1495,35876,00.html
Pubdate: 13 Aug 1998
Author: Tom Kertscher The Fresno Bee
Section: Local News

MOM ADDICTED TO COCAINE, OLDER SONS SAYS

The Fresno mother accused of letting her 10-year-old son smoke crack
cocaine has had a drug problem for 20 years but didn't give dope to the
boy, her 27-year-old son said Wednesday.

Fresnan DeShawn Robinson said his mother did leave cocaine around the
house and the boy helped himself to it.

"They've blown it out of proportion," Fresnan DeShawn Robinson said of
the felony child endangerment case against his mother, Darlene Mosell
Dorsey, 43. "But she needed a rest. She needs to put it in God's hands."
Dorsey was scheduled to enter a plea to the charge in Fresno County
Superior Court Wednesday, but her arraignment was postponed until Aug.
24. She remains in the Fresno County Jail.

Dorsey was arrested Saturday after her 20-year-old daughter, Tennille
Hughes, told police she had found the boy smoking cocaine, behind the
family's southwest Fresno home.

Hughes reportedly flushed the crack down a toilet before calling police.
Authorities placed the boy in her custody after he was examined at a
hospital.

Hughes told police that her mother told her to "mind her own business"
when she objected to the boy using cocaine. She said her mother stated
that the decision was his.

Robinson said he believes his mother left crack around the house and
that the boy smoked it on his own. He said his mother clearly needs help
for her addiction.

"She doesn't need to be on the streets right now. She needs to think
about what she did," Robinson said.

The boy is doing fine, Robinson said.
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