A Mesa mom is facing a felony charge of child abuse after her 11-year-old son got sick while trying to help his grandfather pass a drug test, according to court documents.
Police arrested
Kiralee Arlene Ruck, 29, one day after officers were called to her son's school because he was showing symptoms of a drug overdose. The grandfather,
John Davis, was arrested on Wednesday.
"The school staff reported the victim told them his grandfather paid him $40 dollars to take a half of a pink pill and to later urinate in a cup for him so he would pass a drug test," reads the probable cause for arrest statement included in
Ruck's public court documents. "The victim said his grandfather did not want to test positive for marijuana use …" According to police, the boy said his grandfather would not get morphine prescriptions from his pain clinic if he tested positive for marijuana.
Court documents state that the child's mom, grandmother and grandfather were home when he got sick after taking the pill Monday night. "His grandmother asked the defendant to take the victim to the emergency room and she refused," police said in the probable cause statement. The boy's mom reportedly sent him to bed. Although he was still sick the next morning, she "forced him to go to school."
The Mesa Fire and Medical Department took the boy to the hospital where he tested positive for opiates, according to court documents. When police spoke with Ruck after her son was taken to the hospital, she admitted knowing that he had taken morphine and that the child's grandmother had suggested she take him to the hospital. She also confirmed her decision to send him to school even though he had vomited half a dozen times throughout the night and the next morning. "She said she did not know what to do and assumed he was getting better if he was vomiting," according to court documents.
She also told police she knew precisely what the "pink pill" was – a 30mg dose of morphine. "She knew this because her stepfather has overdosed multiple times on the medication and Mesa Fire Department has had to revive him."
According to police, the boy told investigators he "has been taking white pills for his grandfather and urinating in a cup for over a year." Those pills, according to what Ruck told police, are 15mg doses of morphine. The boy said his grandfather, Davis, paid him $20 each time, and then $40 to take half of a pink pill Monday night.
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