LISBON, Ohio — A 4-year-old Ohio boy pictured in police photos in the back seat of a car while his grandmother and her boyfriend were slumped over from a drug overdose is moving in with other relatives.
Columbiana County Juvenile Court administrator Dane Walton said that the boy’s great-uncle and great-aunt in South Carolina petitioned the court for custody, which was granted Monday by a judge.
Walton says the grandmother, Rhonda Pasek, was granted custody of the boy six weeks ago. Walton says the judge’s report shows that at the time there was “no evidence brought forward” of any drug issues with Pasek.
Pasek is being held on a child endangerment charge. Her boyfriend, James Acord, pleaded guilty to child endangerment and operating a vehicle while intoxicated.
An East Liverpool police officer was driving to work last Wednesday when the couple stopped behind a school bus. When the bus drove off, the officer saw the couple’s car drifting before it came to a stop, police said.
Police said they found evidence the adults had used a mixture of heroin and fentanyl.
The adults were unconscious by the time an ambulance crew arrived and likely would have died if they hadn’t received an opiate antidote, police said.
The photo of the passed-out adults and the boy was posted to the police department’s Facebook page the next day.
The city’s safety director said he and others wanted to send a message to addicts they should find safe places for their children when using debilitating drugs.
“Sometimes the truth is a gruesome thing,” Safety Director Brian Allen said. “And that picture is the truth of what my officers deal with every single day.”
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