Court documents say Ashlee Hutt and Leroy McIver were found living with their three children in a home filled with rat droppings, drug needles and heroin.
Someone in the Spanaway home contacted state Child Protective Services after claiming they saw the 24-year-old Hutt inject her children -- ages 6, 4, and 2 -- with a dangerous drug.
“Some of the statements they [the children] made were very disturbing about how they would get sleeping juice to go to sleep and it was injected into them by needle,” said Pierce County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Detective Ed Troyer.
Child Protective Services began an investigation covering a period from May to November 2015 during which Hutt and McIver are suspected of giving heroin to all three of the children.
A probable cause affidavit states the 6-year-old told CPS investigators; “his mom and dad give him and his sisters the 'feel good medicine,'" which “he described as a white powder which was mixed with water," and that his parents "used a needle to inject the 'feel good medicine' into him and his sisters."
He stated that, after being injected, the three children would go to sleep, according to the affidavit.
Testing showed traces of low levels of what was believed to be heroin in two of the children, but in at least one case the level was below the threshold to confirm the drug was in the child’s body. One child tested negative.
Puncture marks and bruising consistent with needle injections were also found on the children's bodies.
Donald Tiedt lives near the Spanaway home where Hutt was arrested after failing to show up to face charges in September. He said sheriff's deputies come to the residence on a regular basis.
“Whoah, I didn’t know that was going on over there,” Tiedt said. “There’s just been so many reports. It’s hard to keep track of everything.”
Tiedt said he regularly sees children at the home.
Hutt and McIver’s children were taken away in November 2015 while CPS conducted its investigation.
“They’re in foster homes and they’re doing well,” said Troyer.
McIver, 25, was jailed in September after he was arrested on a bench warrant.
Both he and Hutt pleaded not guilty to three counts of second-degree child assault, delivery of a controlled substance to a person under 18 and child endangerment.
They remain in custody.
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