Jan 11, 2008 6:46 pm US/Eastern
Mother Charged With Killing Child With Methadone
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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A mother charged with giving her daughter a deadly dose of methadone did not have a permanent home.
A mother charged with giving her daughter a deadly dose of methadone did not have a permanent home. A family who took in Vernice Harris and her child from time to time tells
Suzanne Collins she lacked parenting skills.
Police witnesses say Bryanna Harris' mother would get angry, even when the two-year-old was hungry or just asking to be held. Vernice Harris has been charged with murder after the two-year-old died from a methadone overdose police say was given to keep the girl quiet. Bryanna also had a severe blow to the abdomen, resulting in liver damage.
Dr. Peter Beilenson, the former head of the City Health Department, says Bryanna didn't have to die.
"This case and other cases like it are truly tragic. Not just because what happened in this individual case but because most of these cases would be preventable if the recommendations made time and time again had been put in force," he said.
One woman who didn't want to be identified took in Harris and her daughter off and on for the last four years.
"She didn't want to feed her, didn't want to give her a bath. We had to say `Give Bryanna a bath. Why don't you give her something to eat?' or we would do it ourselves."
The family says they couldn't understand when Harris seemed not to care when she lost her other two daughters to foster care in 2006.
"When she was here, she was supposed to go to parenting classes, things like that. She didn't do it. She was supposed to go to court one day about her parenting rights and she didn't go. I asked her about it and she said it wasn't important," the woman said.
Police say the child died in a filthy, insect-infested home in East Baltimore, a home where Harris' grandmother lived when she was alive.
When Vernice Harris wanted to move back to East Baltimore and leave Randallstown, the family says they begged her to leave the baby behind because there was no set plan on where she would live.
"I feel bad because maybe if we would have kept her, she wouldn't have had to go through this," she said.
Since the child's death, lawmakers are calling for reform at Social Services. The agency had handled two neglect complaints involving Bryanna even weeks before the death and had taken away two older children.
"It's a massive, massive problem that we have to address. I feel for the loss of this child," said Mayor Sheila Dixon.
Child advocates say the child welfare system is underfunded and case workers are overworked by big caseloads.
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