Cops: Mom gave pot to kids ages 1, 4, 7

Eileen Kelley

Enquirer

October 28, 2010

Child welfare investigators learned of the allegation in late September when the 7-year-old told an adult about the drug use. On Wednesday, their mother, Valerie Cecil, 25, of Stewart Road in Madisonville, was arrested on three counts of corrupting with drugs. The charges are felonies and she faces 4 ½ years in prison if the charges go forward and she is convicted.

Additional charges for Cecil as well as additional arrests of other adults could be forthcoming, said Megan Shanahan, a prosecutor on the case.

Prosecutors and police say Cecil would blow the marijuana smoke into the faces of the children and have them open their mouths so that she could directly blow the smoke into their mouths and systems.

Shanahan said the pot smoking was a routine occurrence and had been going on for months. Two of the children got to the point where they could smoke a marijuana cigarette on their own.

“I cannot believe that this woman can call herself a mother,” Shanahan said. “… to forcibly have her children use marijuana is repulsive.”

This is the first arrest for Cecil, who appeared before Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Dwane Mallory on Thursday. Mallory allowed her to remain free without having to post bond. Brian Gregg, a spokesman with the Department of Job and Family Services said the three children have been taken out of the mother’s home and are with other family members.

The case is similar to another local case late this summer, when a 2-year-old child was captured on her mother’s cellphone video putting a marijuana cigarette to her lips, inhaling, fanning the smoke away and inhaling again. In the video, a woman, believed to be the child’s mother is heard saying, “Don’t blow on it,” as the toddler holds the joint.

Police say Jessica Gamble, 21, then shared the cellphone video with someone else and it eventually landed in the hands of police and prosecutors. She faces 11½ years in prison on felony charges of corrupting with drugs, child endangering and tampering with evidence.