John Thompson
Elizabethton Bureau Chief
Johnson City Press

ELIZABETHTON — A Johnson City woman has been charged with child abuse and other charges after Carter County deputies received complaints that she had forced her 5-year-old child to smoke a cigarette.

Jordon Paige Hensley, 24, 2468 Lakewood Drive, Johnson City, was charged with child abuse and neglect, disorderly conduct and possession of Schedule VI drug.

Deputy Cory Tidwell said he was dispatched to the Watauga Lake Overlook on Wilbur Lake at 8 p.m. when he spotted the car the woman was reported to be driving. He stopped her car at the Misty Waters Store and asked her if she had given her son a cigarette.

Tidwell said she admitted she had given the boy a cigarette and said she did it because “she was teaching him not to smoke.”

While he was talking with Hensley, a witness to the incident pulled into the parking lot and told Tidwell he had seen Hensley stick the cigarette in the boy’s mouth and also saw the child exhale smoke and begin coughing.

He said he also saw the child running around and his mother screaming at him to keep running. He said that when the child fell to the ground screaming that he could not run anymore, Hensley jerked him up by his arm and told him he had better keep running.

As he continued to talk to Hensley, Tidwell said, he noticed she appeared to be trying to hide something. He told her to show him her hands and she told him “no.” When he again asked, she again refused. Tidwell then removed her from the car and placed her in restraints. He then checked where she was sitting and found a small bag of marijuana, according to the report.

A passenger in the car, Chester Paul Kyle III, 36, 2468 Lakewood Drive, was also arrested on charges of violation of probation.

The two are scheduled to answer the charges in Sessions Court on May 21.

 

LINK TO PHOTO OF MOTHER:

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/News/article.php?ID=76272