NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A North Palm Beach woman is facing child neglect charges after a 19-month old child was treated for an opioid drug overdose on Thursday.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office (PBSO) says 43-year old Jeanette Agnes Homan called 911 to report a domestic disturbance between her and a male. While she was on the phone she requested an ambulance for her possibly overdosing child, which she noticed was falling asleep and displaying signs of an overdose.
The child was transported to Jupiter Medical Center where she was treated with several doses of Narcan (Naloxone).
According to PBSO, the child ingested a Buprenorphine (a generic brand of Subutex, a Schedule III narcotic).
Hospital staff informed the investigating deputy that this was the second incident where the child was treated for an overdose.
PBSO says on October 16, 2017, Jeanette Homan informed hospital staff that the baby ingested two 1mg Clonazepam pills. The baby became unable to walk and kept falling down. Despite the baby ingesting the pills between 8:00 am and 8:30 am, the baby wasn't transported to Jupiter Medical Center until approximately 11:00 am that morning. Holman told staff that she thinks she dropped the pills on the floor in the middle of the night when she was taking the prescribed medication.
On Thursday, Homan originally informed PBSO that a man (not identified in her arrest report) arrived at her residence and took a vehicle. She claimed that she ran out of the house, opened the passenger door, grabbed her purse out of the car and opened the glove box to retrieve her bottle of Buprenorphine.
At this point, Homan claimed the man grabbed the bottle, opened it and took half the pills. According to the arrest report, she claimed the man threw the pills at her, which spilled all over the driveway. She says the child must have picked up one of the pills and ate it.
Further questioning by deputies, with an Investigator from the Florida Department of Children and Families present, revealed multiple inconsistencies in her account of events.
Deputies say eventually Homan admitted that the man did not throw pills causing them to spill over the driveway, rather that he simply threw the bottle at her.
Homan told deputies she was very upset and went into the house where she counted the pills (26 of them). She says she took one of them and must have dropped one on the kitchen floor.
After Homan noticed the girl was falling asleep and showing signs of an overdose, she told deputies that she noticed a portion of a white pill on the kitchen floor. She says she picked it up and threw it in the garbage, then recounted the pills and realized there were now 24 pills and that one was missing.
When deputies asked Homan if this has ever happened in the past, she advised several months ago she dropped a half of a Clonazepam pill (not the two pills originally reported) on the floor and the baby ingested it.
Homan signed a consent to search her residence, which revealed an open bottle of unknown white pills scattered on a dresser in her bedroom, which could have been within reach of the child.
Jeanette Homan was charged with two counts of neglect of a child causing bodily harm and one count of perjury (not in an official proceeding) for providing a false statement to a deputy.
