Sentenced: Mother Was Reported To State 3 Times Before Toddler's Overdose Death

[Sugar Cookie]

A mother was reported to state child services at least three times before her 2-year-old son died from an apparent fentanyl overdose.

East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner Dr. Beau Clark reviewed the child's medical records and said the state's inaction appears to have led to his death.

"I think this was preventable," Clark said. "If there was a moment between the second and third overdose where action was taking place and the child was placed in protective custody, then the third overdose would not have occurred."

Instead, nothing happened by the state.

Arrest documents from the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office outlined two previous instances where Whitney Ard, 28, brought her unresponsive toddler to a hospital before the child died on June 26. Ard was booked Tuesday on a charge of negligent homicide after law enforcement investigated her son's death.

On the day of his death, arrest records said the child—identified as Mitchell Robinson III—was rushed to the hospital by ambulance from their home.

Ard, who was jailed in May after a drug bust at her home, was released just a day earlier and said her son was behaving normally when she picked him up from her mother on June 25. Ard told deputies she was lying in bed with her son when he asked for food early the next morning.

The mother said she made a bowl of cereal, placed it on the floor next to her bed for the 2-year-old to eat and went back to sleep. Arrest records said she woke up later that morning to find the child back in bed "cold to the touch, unresponsive, with his fingertips, mouth, and tongue blue in color."

Paramedics arrived outside the home to find Ard's friend trying to resuscitate the child on the pavement. First responders tried giving the boy epinephrine, a medicine used to treat allergic reactions. When that didn't work Ard told the paramedics her son responded to Narcan in the past.

Narcan also proved unsuccessful in reviving the toddler, and he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital. On Aug. 2, over a month later, the East Baton Rouge coroner determined the child's death was caused by a fentanyl overdose.

Deputies investigating the family's home said they found the corner of a clear plastic bag "containing white powdery residue" beneath the bed near the bowl of cereal on the floor.


Deputies also noted there had been two other instances in April and June where the mother brought her unresponsive son to a hospital, adding that both incidents were reported to the Department of Children and Family Services prior to the child's death.

On April 12, healthcare workers noted the child was suffering from respiratory failure and seizure-like symptoms, though his brain activity was not consistent with a seizure and "no seizure medications were needed," according to the report. The toddler was ultimately released back to his mother after being treated with Narcan.


The woman once again brought her child to the emergency room on June 4 after she noticed he was having troubled breathing "similar to the event in April." The unresponsive toddler was again treated with Narcan and discharged from the hospital two days later.

Continue reading at link

Mother was reported to state 3 times before toddler's overdose death; Inspector General investigating

A mother was arrested for negligent homicide after her 2-year-old son died from a fentanyl overdose.

www.wbrz.com

According to an official report, “the sibling disclosed that in the past she has seen a lot of pills on her mother’s bed and her brother “ate mom’s pills.” When their mother found out her brother ate some of the pills her mother whipped him and made him go to bed. Later on, their mother took him to the hospital.”

EBR Deputies: Mother arrested after two-year-old’s fatal overdose

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – Authorities say the 28-year-old mother of two-year-old Mitchell Robinson has been arrested since the toddler’s fatal overdose in June. According to a Tuesda…

www.brproud.com

 

[Sugar Cookie]

 

[knockout]

Gee, such an unexpected death

 

[Sugar Cookie]

TIMELINE:

4/2022 - Baby went to the ER for “breathing issues.” He was revived with Narcan & released to his mother.

5/12/22 - After police raided Ard’s home, Whitney Ard was arrested for:

2counts - PWITD Schedule 2 (18 pounds of methamphetamine & 2 pounds of Fentanyl)
PWITD Schedule 3 (56 dosage units suboxone)
PWITD Schedule 4 (390 dosage units of tramadol)
Possession of Schedule 2 (12 dosage units oxycodone)
Possession of Schedule 4 (4 dosage units Xanax)
Possession of Drug Paraphernalia
CDS in Presence of Minor;
Illegal Possession of a Firearm w/CDS
Unlawful Use of a Machine Gun (Glock 9mm handgun illegally converted to fully auto)

After 5/12/22 drug raid, Department of Children and Family Services did not remove the child from the care of the mother, Ard.

6/4/22 - baby had revived with Narcan (AGAIN) after being “admitted & treated for lethargic behavior, acute respiratory failure, and seizure disorder.”

6/24/22 - Ard released from East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. Her mother was taking care of the toddler.

6/25/22 - Ard said got her son back from her mother & he was “displaying normal behavior, as he was running around playing with his older sibling.” & that she put the toddler in bed with her, where he often slept.

6/26/2022- During the early morning hours, Ard’s son woke her up & asked for something to eat. She prepared him a bowl of cereal and placed him on the floor to eat it.

6/26/2022- Around 7am, Ard awoke to find the toddler in bed with her, cold to the touch, unresponsive, with his fingertips, mouth, and tongue blue in color. She carried him outdoors, where her friend performed CPR until EMS arrived. Ard advised that the toddler had a “medical history of seizures.” When deputies searched Ard’s home, they found a “corner piece of a clear piece of plastic containing white powdery residue,underneath the bed of the master bedroom.”

6/26/22 @ 10:20 AM - Deputies responded to a hospital when a 2-yr-old boy passes soon after arriving after being transported from his home. Medical personnel advised deputies that the child’s death was suspicious because the child was unresponsive when he arrived by EMS to the hospital.

7/2/22 - coroner determined the child's death was caused by a fentanyl overdose. The report said the child had 14 ng/mL of fentanyl in his blood.

7/6/22 - the older sibling told the Children’s Advocacy Center that in the past she has seen a lot of pills on her mother’s bed & her (deceased) brother, “ate mom’s pills.” When their mother out, she whipped him & made him go to bed. Later on, their mother took him to the hospital. Regarding the day her brother passed, the sibling said that he was “outside and his lips were blue.”

8/2/22 - Whitney Ard arrested for 1 count of negligent homicide
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Louisiana Hot Topics​

 

[Busy Bee]

Handsome little man, so cute! Preventable, so sad. So she beats the child for Her grave error of leaving a dangerous substance where he has access! She was very careless and should never have children in her care! The government child care agency missed on this one!

 

[knockout]

Government agencies, we return kids to the parents till death do you part

 

[Sugar Cookie]

A Baton Rouge woman accused of second degree murder after her 2-year-old son ingested a fatal dose of fentanyl wants a judge to release her from jail and send her to a treatment facility for her drug addiction.

Whitney Ard, 29, told the judge in a letter that she has been using drugs for the past six years and became dependent after giving birth to her first child. She said she has lied, has stolen from family members and has prostituted herself to support her habit.

“I couldn’t find the power to break out of my addiction on my own,” the letter says. “I desperately need help.”

Baton Rouge police arrested Ard on negligent homicide Aug. 2, about five weeks after her toddler son, Mitchell Robinson III, overdosed on fentanyl. A grand jury subsequently indicted her on second-degree murder, a more serious charge.

Ard has been incarcerated since her arrest and she faces an arraignment Nov. 15. No trial date has been set.

In a six-page handwritten letter, added to her court file Oct. 13, Ard detailed to 19th Judicial District Judge Beau Higginbotham how she was prescribed pain medication after a motorcycle crash during her senior year in high school. Shortly afterward, she gave birth to her now-6-year-old daughter and became hooked.

She said she’s been through detox twice and received treatment at the ACER Recovery Outpatient Center while she was pregnant with her son. She said she wants to enter an extended treatment program, then be placed in a sober living facility or put under house arrest.

“Judge Higginbotham, I can assure you if you grant me the opportunity to go get help, you’ll be saving my life as well as giving me a second chance at life,” she wrote. “A chance that you will not regret as I will abide by any and all recommendations that you set. I’m confident my lawyer will prove me to be a great candidate for these conditions as I am not the monster the media is portraying me to be. I am a grieving mother who needs help.”

The toddler's death thrust Louisiana’s Department of Children and Family Services into the spotlight and prompted a state investigation. Robinson became a poster child of the agency’s dire staffing shortages and funding woes, another casualty emblematic of DCFS’ failures to protect children living in dangerous conditions. DCFS had been notified on separate occasions in April and June about Ard bringing her unresponsive son to the hospital with what proved to be prior fentanyl overdoses.

Ard said she has been demonized because of the publicity surrounding the case.

“I took my time writing this letter because I want you to get to know me personally and not listen to the media, as the monster they portray me to be,” she stated.

Woman held in toddler's fentanyl death wants drug treatment: 'I desperately need help'

A Baton Rouge woman accused of second degree murder after her 2-year-old son ingested a fatal dose of fentanyl wants a judge to release her from jail and send her

www.theadvocate.com

Wriitng this letter and not mentioning the child she killed or expressing any resmorse for it shows what a monster she really is.

 

[GoneWest]

She took the time writing this letter because she’s in jail and doesn’t have anything else to fucking do-besides try and find a way to score some drugs.

 

[Satanica]

BATON ROUGE - The mother of a 2-year-old boy who died after he swallowed fentanyl pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

Whitney Ard, 29, was back in court Tuesday, where she officially entered the plea. It comes months after her arrest in July, when investigators determined she was at fault in her child's death.

The East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office said Ard was an accused drug dealer who used her home as a storage unit for narcotics, and deputies noted that she had been reported to the Department of Children and Family Services on multiple occasions after her son, Mitchell Robinson III, nearly died from overdoses on two separate occasions prior to his death in June.

Ard is due back in court for a motions hearing on Jan. 31, 2023.
[....]

Mother pleads not guilty in toddler's fentanyl death that exposed problems at DCFS

BATON ROUGE - The mother of a 2-year-old boy who died after he swallowed fentanyl pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

www.wbrz.com

 

[GoneWest]

This entire situation is so disturbing on so many levels. A drug raid on her residence on June 11th found 18 POUNDS of meth and 2 POUNDS of fentanyl among other drugs and an illegally altered MACHINE GUN!!! How in the hell was she still living there with her children in early July with drugs present when her baby OD’d a 2nd time? She then goes to jail for like 2 weeks and gets out just in time to finally kill her son for good. Unbelievable.

It’s not just CPS who dropped the ball on this one. Hospital, police department, court, judge, grandma, and of course the baby killing drug dealing “mother”. They all made sure this little one didn’t have a chance.

 

[AussieKat]

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Whitney is itching to get out to get her fix and pregnant again

 

[Sugar Cookie]

The father of a two-year-old who police say died of a fentanyl overdose last year is suing Louisiana's child welfare agency, saying case workers failed to remove the toddler from his mother's custody even after two near-death experiences landed him in the hospital.

The wrongful death civil claim filed Monday in the 19th Judicial District Court names the Department of Children and Family Services, former Secretary Marketa Garner Walters and Terri Ricks, the agency's current secretary. Two unidentified case workers, one of whom resigned following the child's death, are also listed as defendants in the complaint.

The suit was filed exactly one year after Mitchell Robinson III, 2, died on June 26 of 2022; the coroner labeled his death an overdose on fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that medical and law enforcement officials have blamed for a deadly rise in overdoses.

Mitchell Robinson lodged the lawsuit on behalf of his deceased son, referred to throughout the petition as "Baby Mitch." The father is seeking recompense for the loss of his son, along with emotional damages the grief, mental anguish and distress he’s suffered as a result of the death.

Before his death, the boy had twice been hospitalized and revived with Narcan, an overdose-reversing drug, and doctors had flagged his case to DCFS for investigation.

His 2-year-old son died of a fentanyl overdose. He's suing Louisiana's child welfare agency

The father of a 2-year-old who police said died of a fentanyl overdose last year is suing Louisiana's child welfare agency, saying case workers failed to remove the toddler from

www.theadvocate.com

 

[knockout]

His 2-year-old son died of a fentanyl overdose. He's suing Louisiana's child welfare agency

The father of a 2-year-old who police said died of a fentanyl overdose last year is suing Louisiana's child welfare agency, saying case workers failed to remove the toddler from

www.theadvocate.com

Curious, was the father at all involved with the child and did he support him in any way before he saw him as a dollar sign?

 

[Kiowaprincess]

I'm still stuck at "When that didn't work Ard told the paramedics her son responded to Narcan in the past."

 

[AliCatClick]

This does not surprise me at all, CPS is all about money now. Endangered/traumatized children are not "worth" as much while adopting out and thus usually left with their abusers. It's essentially all CPS in the USA does anymore. That lawsuit likely won't do shit, as for some reason this scum agency is above the law. "Oh but the workers are overworked with too many cases" They have essentially quick notes about the basis of each case they are assigned, so somewhere along the line a caseworker read about this toddler overdosing and either decided it wasn't worth looking into as the child likely would have issues and not bring in as much money, or figured it didn't take priority so they didn't have time to deal with it as they were too busy with other cases (likely to remove happy, healthy kids).

It's not hard to work for CPS, they don't need to be educated about children or have prior experience, the agency could hire far more workers to lesson the caseload for each worker, but they choose not to. And why should they? They are never held responsible for the blood on their hands.

As far as the mom goes with her sob story about "It's not my fault my baby ate my stash 3 times, I'm an addict!", you can be an addict without leaving your shit easily accessible to your children. You can also prioritize your children's lives over your own selfish pleasure/self medication seeking. Detox failed twice? Likely because she wouldn't refrain from use and focus on the important goal at hand. She's insinuating the treatment failed *her* and so she just said fuck it and continued endangering her children.

Your child should be worth repeated attempts at recovery until you make it work. Hell she could've even temporarily (or permanently) relinquished custody to someone more suitable to care for them while she was actively using and clearly an unfit mother. But that would require personal accountability, which she seems completely void of. Worthless human. Rant over.

 

[Satanica]

Quitting any habit requires commitment on the addicted person’s part. Achieving that state of mind is the hard part. Once your mind is truly made up, it’s suddenly not so difficult after all.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

– The mother of a 2-year-old who died from a fentanyl overdose turned down her plea deal, East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore confirmed Monday, April 15.

Whitney Ard was arrested after Mitchell Robinson, her son, died in a hospital in June 2022. Authorities suspected that Robinson ingested pills that were left lying around and was not immediately taken for medical treatment.

The East Baton Rouge Coroner’s Office said the toddler’s death was due to “acute fentanyl toxicity.”

Ard was formally charged with second-degree murder in September 2022 and pleaded not guilty.

According to court records, the state made an offer that Ard plead guilty to manslaughter in exchange for 30 years in prison. The offer was open until April 15.

Moore confirmed that Ard turned down her plea deal in court.

MSN

 

[knockout]

She used to getting off with a wrist slap, so why take 30 years

 

[Crazy Cat Lady]

She used to getting off with a wrist slap, so why take 30 years

I hope she’s surprised this time.

 

[GoneWest]

I hope she’s surprised this time.

Me too, but I doubt it. I bet she’ll take the plea like a day before the trial starts. Doesn’t seem to be like on tv when they’re like, this deals of the table in 10 minutes fucker”.

 

[Pinwheel]

Well that was a bad gamble on her part.

 

[Sugar Cookie]

A Baton Rouge mom will spend life in prison for the overdose death of her 2-year-old son. Whitney Ard was convicted of second-degree murder in September, and she was sentenced Monday, Oct. 21.

Ard, 31, was arrested in 2022 after Mitchell Robinson died after exposure to drugs. According to arrest documents, toxicology showed 14 ng/mL of fentanyl in his blood.

The child was pronounced dead at a hospital in June 2022, and investigators learned he’d been treated at the hospital for drug exposure multiple times before. A witness, according to an affidavit, said he “ate mom’s pills.”

Ard was first charged with negligent homicide. In April, she declined a plea deal for a charge of manslaughter for a 30-year sentence.

A judge denied the defense team’s request for a new trial on Thursday, Oct. 17.

She was sentenced to life without benefit of probation, parole or suspension of sentence.

District Attorney Hillar Moore said Judge Louise Hines noted it was abhorrent that Ard sold or used drugs around her children or allowed others to do so, and the boy overdosing three times could not be excused.

MSN