A 34-year-old woman is facing child neglect and drug charges after she was found unconscious behind the wheel of a wrecked car with a syringe in her arm and an infant boy in an unsecured car seat in the back seat, police in Port St. Lucie, Florida, said.
Jessica Ruth Hand of Port St. Lucie was being held in the St. Lucie County Jail on Friday morning following her arrest Thursday. Her bail is set at $4,500.
Arrested with Hand was John Jacob Rodriguez, 34, also of Port St. Lucie. He was found unconscious in the back seat, next to the infant. City police arrested him on charges of child neglect and for possession of drug paraphernalia and of a controlled substance without a prescription.
No bail was set for Rodriguez, whom St. Lucie County jail records list as a “violent felony offender.”
The infant was unharmed during the incident and was turned over to a family member. City police did not disclose the relationship between Hand, Rodriguez and the child.
City police said they found the car at Port St. Lucie Boulevard and Glover Street, just east of City Hall, after receiving reports of a crash at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday. They removed Hand, Rodriguez and the infant from the 2003 white Saturn and administered first aid to the two adults. All three were taken to St. Lucie Medical Center.
Witnesses told police that Hand was driving south on Glover Street but failed to heed a stop sign at Port St. Lucie Boulevard. The car crossed all six lanes of traffic and crashed into a police on the south side of the Boulevard.
At the hospital, authorities discovered 38 tablets of the anti-anxiety drug Alprazolam — also known as Xanax — in his possession, along with a pipe suspected to be used for smoking narcotics.
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