Posted on 07/19/2007 9:22:28 AM PDT by aomagrat
In a 5-year-old’s eyes, his parents’ greatest sin was stealing.
Living in the back seat of a green 1994 Buick — between mushed food in the seats and overturned drinks on the floorboard — the child was appalled that his parents would steal four food trays, dinner rolls and a half-gallon of tea from a Piggly Wiggly to feed them.
As for the “white medicine” he said his parents forced him and his sister to snort through a straw, all he knew about it was that it made his nose burn and his 2-year-old sister throw up.
The boy’s parents — 24-year-old Brandon Suggs and 30-year-old Ragane Suggs — pleaded guilty Wednesday to child abuse with great bodily injury. Judge Kenneth Goode sentenced them each to five years in prison.
Detective Danielle Belk interviewed the 5-year-old boy for the Cayce Department of Public Safety.
“He was very explicit as to that they had to suck it up through a straw, him and his sister, and that sometimes (his sister) would cry and it would choke her — and that mom and dad were present,” she said.
The parents admitted to smoking crack cocaine in front of their children, but both vigorously denied forcing their children to snort the drug.
Both parents pleaded guilty under a U.S. Supreme Court case — called an Alford plea — in which they do not admit guilt, but admit they would probably lose in a jury trial.
In a videotaped interview, not shown in court, the 5-year-old says his father gave him a cigarette to smoke, but doesn’t talk about being forced to snort cocaine, said Wayne Floyd, Ragane Suggs’ attorney.
Floyd said the fumes from the parents’ cocaine use might have been the burning sensation the boy described to police.
The 5-year-old had 8,556 parts per million of cocaine in his system. His little sister had 12,143 parts per million, tests showed.
Dr. Bob Stafford, medical director for the Lexington-Richland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council, said those levels are so high it would be impossible to have gotten them from fumes.
Stafford also said the high levels indicate the children used cocaine more than once. “You can’t take that much in at one time and survive,” he said.
‘WHITE MEDICINE’
Brandon and Ragane Suggs were together for three months before Brandon got another woman pregnant and split his time between the two households, Floyd said.
Ragane Suggs had her own place and took care of the children herself on an $8-an-hour salary from a cleaning job.
“She was a good parent,” Floyd said. “She had no problems with these children at all until (she and Brandon) got on that crack.”
For a while, she had an on-again, off-again relationship with her husband, Floyd said. She eventually got back together with Brandon Suggs and, at some point, the two started using cocaine.
Brandon Suggs lost his job at Gaston Vinyl Siding Co. Then Ragane lost hers. Soon, the parents couldn’t afford hotel rooms.
That’s when the family moved into the green Buick. According to the 5-year-old, his parents would steal from local stores — clothes, shoes and food — and either swap or sell them for drugs.
“They would go to some guy’s house in Gaston and that’s where Daddy would pick up his ‘white medicine,’ is what (the 5-year-old) called it,” Belk said.
Floyd said the children never stayed overnight in the car, but would stay with relatives while their parents slept in the Buick.
‘IT WAS HORRIFIC’
On Feb. 15 at 11:40 a.m., the family walked out of a Piggly Wiggly on Charleston Highway without paying for the four carry-out food trays, dinner rolls and a half-gallon of tea from the deli department, according to an incident report.
The manager, Mike Rawl, saw the family get into the Buick and drive to a nearby Hardee’s parking lot to eat. Rawl called police.
When officers arrived, they found the children were dirty and half-dressed. The back seat, where the children sat, smelled so bad that officers had to remove the seat before impounding the car, said Larry Wedekind, assistant 11th Circuit solicitor.
“It was horrific,” Belk said of the scene. “It’s probably one of the worst things I’ve ever been on — and I’ve been on some pretty gruesome ones.”
The parents were arrested and the children were placed in emergency protective custody. After two weeks, social workers noticed the children were showing withdrawal symptoms. The test results came back positive for cocaine.
‘SHE HURTS FOR HER CHILDREN’
The children have been living with their aunt, Belk said, and are doing “fabulous.”
The 5-year-old will start school this fall. He can ride a bicycle, knows his colors and is learning to swim. The 2-year-old is learning to count and has gained 3 pounds.
“By God’s grace the children seem to be doing well, but it wasn’t because of the actions of the parents,” Wedekind said.
The parents could have received 20 years each if convicted at trial. The 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, which prosecutes cases in Lexington County, made a deal to cap the prison time at five years for each parent in exchange for a guilty plea.
“We wanted to spare the child from going through the difficulties of having to make allegations about his mother and father,” Wedekind said.
“Everybody is just distraught about it, including her,” Floyd said about Ragane Suggs.
“Whatever the judge does to her would not hurt near as much as the way she hurts for her children.”
If you want to hang out,
you have to take her out,
Ragane
She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie
Ragane
I don’t buy it. No junkie is giving drugs away to anyone.
So what, you figure a two year old girl scored her own coke and then ratted out her parents in a leniency deal?
Just when you think you’ve heard the worst, along comes another story to out do it in depravity. I guess thank God the ‘parents’ stole food and were caught, because now the little ones have a chance. It’s amazing they’ve survived thus far.
Agreed. Absolutely unnerving and depraved.
Sadly, this was probably a wise choice given his age and the abuse suffered, abuse he seems blissfully unaware of for the most part. But I would hope that in five years, when these 'parents' are freed, the legal system doesn't rush to reunite the children with them. Not without enormous changes by them, and even then I'd be leery...
These idiots should not only get time in prison, but should also be sterilized so they cannot do this to any more children.
I think the cops are lying. Clear enough?
1 g / 1000ml = 1000 ppm
12+ grams per liter of blood is so far above the toxic range fore coke that this has to be MSM stupidity!
I hope that the legal system is working on terminating the parental rights of both of these...people. (I’d call them something else, but I don’t want to get banned.) I don’t think they should ever be allowed near the kids again and certainly they should not be in charge of them.
According to another article, people are considered “stoned” when cocaine concentration is equal to .3 parts per million. Even if the author meant to say “parts per billion” it’s still not right.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.