KIDS, CRACK COCAINE AND SEX

Middletown Mom, 2 Former Neighbors Indicted Amid Charges Of Corruption And
Rape

MIDDLETOWN - Three youngsters, including a boy and girl as young as
12, are being treated for crack cocaine addiction, and one had sex in
exchange for the highly addictive drug, authorities said.

That's the fallout, police and prosecutors say, from a two-month
investigation that ended in indictments this week of the mother of two
of the youngsters and two former neighbors at the Williamsburg Place
Apartments on Jackson Lane.

"This is deeply, deeply disturbing," Butler County Prosecutor Robin
Piper said Friday. "It shows people will do just about anything to
feed the addiction."

A county grand jury charged Lola McKinney, 39, Elizabeth Ann Tabar,
26, and Tabar's mother, Darlene Griffin, 52, each with three felony
counts of corrupting another with drugs and three felony counts of
permitting drug abuse.

Tabar also faces a felony charge of complicity to rape for allegedly
encouraging the 12-year-old, who lived in the complex but is not
related to any of the women, to have sex with a man in exchange for
crack. Police still are investigating the man.

Tabar has been jailed on a $150,000 bond since her arrest in March.
Griffin, who recently was evicted, and McKinney, who still lives
there, remain free and are scheduled to appear in Butler County Common
Pleas Court for an arraignment hearing May 9.

McKinney and Griffin were not charged earlier, but were indicted after
the grand jury heard evidence this week.

McKinney said she was surprised by the charges because police never
interviewed her. She said she has since signed over custody of her
children, a 16-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son who were
involved in the case, to her ex-husband.

McKinney said Friday she smoked crack, but said she didn't smoke with
her children. She said she didn't know until the case broke that her
children were using the drug, even though Tabar lived across the hall.
She blames her children's drug habit on Tabar.

"She's the one that got them started doing it," McKinney said.

City police started the investigation Feb. 23, when McKinney's
ex-husband, who lives in Monroe, reported his daughter ran away and
was with Tabar. Police found the girl at her mother's apartment.

McKinney's daughter and the 12-year-old girl later told police that
all of them had smoked crack Tabar gave them, a police report said.

School officials told police McKinney's son exhibited symptoms of drug
withdrawal, Piper said. The police reported that the boy had a
"terrible" school attendance record.