FOSTER MOM PHOTOGRAPHED WHILE HIGH ON POT

MOUNT WASHINGTON - Marijuana, smoke, a bong, a red-hot flame - and a
baby.

Photos document images of a Hamilton County foster mother caring this
week for a little girl while high on marijuana.

Some five weeks after the Marcus Fiesel case cast a spotlight on the
quality of foster care locally, another foster mom is in hot water
with authorities and has had the children she was caring for taken
away.

One of the last photos taken sometime between Monday night and early
Tuesday shows Stephanie Edwards, 25, on the ground cuddling the
nine-month-old baby girl who has been in her care since she was born.

Edwards admitted Wednesday she was high from smoking marijuana when
that photo was taken, but denied smoking it in front of the baby girl.

A deputy, however, said one photo does show that.

Edwards, a foster parent for the Hamilton County Department of Job and
Family Services for the past year, was removed from the county's
roster of eligible foster parents Wednesday after a deputy in Anderson
Township asked the right questions Tuesday evening.

She will no longer be able to care for the little girl or another
foster child, a 1-year-old boy, until the county investigation is complete.

A CVS photo lab employee in Anderson Township called deputies Tuesday
to express his concern about the nature of the pictures when the lab
was asked to develop Edwards' prints.

Deputy Dave Vargo went to Edwards' Clermont County workplace Tuesday
evening, the Jelly Bean Junction Learning Center on Clough Pike, and
questioned her about the baby's father.

He didn't expect the answer he received.

"I'm a foster parent," she told him.

"I said, 'Excuse me?' " Vargo said.

Both children were taken from her care Tuesday evening and handed over
to 2-4-1 Kids, the child protective services arm of Job and Family
Services.

Vargo arrested Edwards on two misdemeanor counts of child endangering
Tuesday evening. She was booked in the Hamilton County jail and
released just after noon on Wednesday.

"I did make a stupid mistake," said Edwards after her release. "But
(the photos) are very misleading at the same time. I love those babies
and I would do anything to get them back. I would never do anything to
hurt them. The whole situation never should have happened in the first
place and I regret it."

Edwards didn't deny being high in front of the baby girl, but she said
the photos don't tell the whole story. She said the smoke in the
photos is from a fog machine she recently bought for Halloween and not
from smoking on the bong, a water pipe used to smoke marijuana, in
front of the little girl.

Vargo said the baby is pictured in about 80 percent of the
photographs, including a photograph where Edwards is holding the bong
to her mouth and has a lighter over the pipe.

Edwards said she put the baby girl and boy to bed around 9 p.m. and
started to get high with her boyfriend. She said the girl woke up
sometime between 11 p.m. and midnight. She then brought the child into
the room where she and her boyfriend continued to take
photographs.

She was told she lost her job at the day-care center, one she started
Monday, after her arrest.

She said she was also told by Hamilton County's foster-care system
that her situation did not look good.

She said she was in the process of firming up the paperwork to adopt
the infant boy in her care.

"They said there's not a good chance" of that happening, Edwards said.
The agency is conducting an investigation and no foster children will
be placed in Edwards' care until it is complete.

Regardless of the outcome, if Edwards is convicted of child
endangering, she would not be allowed to become a foster parent with
the county, guidelines show.

Vargo said the case of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel, who died in foster
care, played a role in the questions he asked Edwards. He said he now
won't take anything for granted and will ask questions he never
thought to ask before.

Marcus was reported missing Aug. 15 by his foster mother, Liz
Carroll.

Thousands of people, including Edwards, searched a nearby Anderson
Township park for the developmentally disabled child. Liz Carroll and
her husband Dave Carroll Jr. are being held in the Clermont County
jail on murder and other charges.

Edwards' case irks Greg Hartmann, the Hamilton County clerk of
courts.

"This is outrageous," said Hartmann. "We've got to have the big
picture really looked at; what kind of idiots are taking care of our
children?"

Hartmann's agency is compiling a database of all Hamilton County
foster parents.

The names will be automatically matched against people arrested in
Hamilton County. The database should be complete in about two weeks,
Hartmann said Wednesday.

"The more scrutiny, the better," Hartmann said. "It's our job to make
sure we don't have these idiots raising our kids."

Edwards cried Wednesday when she talked about losing her foster-care
children, but downplayed her pot smoking.

"There is so much worse that people can do, like emotional damage,"
she said. "Alcohol is legal. It would have been a lot worse trying to
take care of a baby when you are drunk then when you (smoke pot). Really."