CROSSVILLE, Ill. – Among the issues White County Sheriff’s Department officials had to deal with around the turn of the new year, one was particularly disturbing, and displays just what prescription meds can do to a person…and how kids end up being the ultimate victims.
The particular incident emerged out of the village of Crossville on January 2, when authorities were busy tending to multiple calls about other issues, as previously outlined(including this link).
At 11 a.m. that Wednesday morning, White County Dispatch advised of a disturbance at 405 Hammell Street in the village. The call pertained to a female subject who was refusing to leave the residence; and while en route, dispatch advised the responding deputy that the female subject was now having a physical confrontation with someone inside the residence.
The responding officer happened to be Sheriff Doug Maier, who unlike other sheriffs in downstate actually works and responds to such incidents. Maier arrived at the residence and could observe a female subject sitting along the roadway just past the residence. Marier also observed a small child wandering around along the roadway.
The sheriff approached the woman, and identified her as Tara M. Johnson, 31, of Rudoph Avenue there in Crossville. Maier described her as “very disoriented and unable to stand up without staggering,” and her speech was “very slurred.”
The child previously mentioned had gone up to the porch of a house, so Maier asked Johnson if this was her child; she advised that it was, and Maier asked if the child would be okay on the porch. Johnson said she had no idea who lived at the residence. Maier noted in his report that it was very cold that day (37 degrees) and the child was not dressed properly for the weather.
So Maier asked Johnson what was going on, and Johnson advised that her daughter was at the Mullens residence on the 400 block of Hammell street, and that she (Johnson) was going to check on her. She advised that they got into an argument and she was told to leave. The only subjects at the residence were her daughter, age 12, and two other kids, ages 14 and 12. The father (apparently of the latter two) had left at 4 a.m. to work and the girls were left alone at this residence.
Johnson, however, was having a very difficult time talking and explaining the situation. She seemed to be under the influence of some type of drug. Maier asked what she had taken; she replied that it was a prescription drug, Klonopen.
Sgt. Craig Poole had arrived to assist and had him stay with Johnson and the child while the sheriff talked with people on 405 Hammell Street.
Maier determined that Johnson was in no condition to have children in her care, so he transported her and two of her children (the youngest one being age 2; apparently this is the one who had gone up on the porch) to the sheriff’s office. He then contacted Egyptian Mental Health to come talk to Johnson, and also contacted the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and filed a report. Johnson also advised that her father was coming to the sheriff’s office as well.
Maier met with her father(David Cary), who stated he was there to get the kids. Egyptian Health’s Paula Lawrence and Jeri Newman came to talk to Johnson to get her into some type of treatment; however, Johnson refused any treatment or help at this time. The children left with Carey, who also went to retrieve a 14-year-old son at Johnson’s residence.
Apparently no citations were issued, and as regards any outcome of a DCFS investigation, likely we’ll never know.