COCAINE OVERDOSE CAUSED DEATH OF BABY

An 11-month old girl who had been placed in foster care after she was
physically abused died of a cocaine overdose hours after her foster mother
took her to a Brooklyn hospital, the authorities said yesterday.

Detectives from the 79th Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where the
baby, Shantel Lisby, lived on Pulaski Street with the 26-year-old foster
mother, are investigating the case as a homicide, the police said.

The foster mother, whom a law enforcement official identified as Latisha
Jefferson, took the infant to Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center
about 4:45 p.m. on June 1, the police said. The child, who was suffering
from seizures, died a short time later.

Toxicological tests performed along with an autopsy on the infant determined
on Thursday that the child had died from acute cocaine ingestion, said Ellen
Borakove, the spokeswoman for the city medical examiner's office.

"Detectives are investigating how the child ingested the narcotics," said a
police spokesman, Sgt. Brian Burke.

The baby's two siblings, a 2-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl, who were
also in Ms. Jefferson's care, were returned to the custody of the City
Administration for Children's Services, officials said. Ms. Jefferson's own
two children, an 11-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy, were placed in the
custody of their maternal grandmother.

Detectives have questioned the foster mother and her boyfriend about the
death, officials said.

A spokeswoman for the child welfare agency, Jennifer Banks, said Shantel and
her brother and sister had been placed in the care of the agency in
September 1999 after the agency determined that they had suffered physical
abuse. She said she could provide no details about the children's birth
parents.

Ms. Banks said a social service agency, St. Christopher's Jenny Clarkson,
had looked into Ms. Jefferson's background and, along with the
Administration for Children's Services itself, passed on her fitness to be a
foster parent. St. Christopher's Jenny Clarkson has a contract with the city
agency and placed the children in Ms. Jefferson's home, she said.

The case is under investigation by the city agency and the Police Department
"as to whether the incident was intentional or accidental and whether all
appropriate steps were taken when this foster home was licensed," Ms. Banks
said.