WOMAN COVERED BY 'COCAINE MOM' LAW IS HELD IN JAIL

Racine Police Say Pregnant 28-year-old Stole Her Mom's Car, Is Using More
Drugs

Racine - A pregnant Racine woman who was being monitored in the community
under the state's "cocaine mom" law is in jail after police said she stole
her mother's car and used more cocaine.

The 28-year-old woman was charged Monday with operating a vehicle without
consent, a felony, and remained Tuesday in the Racine County Jail. It is
expected that she will stay in some type of custody until giving birth.

The woman is not being named to protect the identity of her children. She
is seven to eight months pregnant, according to court and police records.

Racine County Circuit Judge Wayne Marik had ordered the woman detained Oct.
27 in what was believed to be the first time the 18-month-old "cocaine mom"
law was used to detain a woman who was not charged with a crime. Police
said she had used cocaine earlier in her pregnancy.

Under that order, she was to live at her mother's home and be monitored by
the Racine County Human Services Department to prevent any drug use that
could hurt her fetus.

The woman, who has two young daughters, was reported in good condition at a
status hearing earlier this month.

But on Dec. 22, her 45-year-old mother told Racine police that she had
given her daughter permission to use her car the previous night to get her
paycheck, but that she had not returned. The next day, the mother told
police that her daughter had returned with the car.

When officers arrived at their home, the woman said she had taken the car
to a friend's house to "get high," according to a criminal complaint. A
urinalysis found cocaine in her system, the complaint says.

The "cocaine mom" law was invoked by Washington County authorities in
February to try to protect the fetus of a woman who had been convicted
three times of drunken driving, but she was in jail at the time.

Officials said they believed that the Racine case was the first time a
woman had been detained without a pending criminal charge.

The "cocaine mom" law, enacted in June 1998, was spurred by two cases
involving pregnant women in Waukesha and Racine counties.

The Waukesha woman made national headlines in 1995 when her doctor reported
that she was pregnant and refusing to give up cocaine.

A Waukesha judge ordered her detained to protect the fetus, but the
Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled the move illegal.

The other case that spurred the law involved Deborah Zimmerman of
Franksville, who authorities say tried to drink herself to death on the day
her daughter was born in 1996.

In the most recent Racine County case, the woman was found guilty of
disorderly conduct and issuing worthless checks in separate cases in 1994,
according to Racine County court records, but has no drug convictions in
Wisconsin.

She has suffered financial problems, including a $2,004 judgment that was
issued against her in February for failing to pay electric bills, records
show.

A preliminary hearing on the car-theft charge is set for Jan. 3.

Rep. Bonnie Ladwig (R-Mount Pleasant), one of the authors of the
cocaine-mom law, said she hopes authorities would place the woman in an
inpatient treatment facility at least until she gives birth.

She stressed that the law calls for detention in the "least-restrictive
setting" and is aimed at protecting the fetus, not locking up drug abusers.

Civil liberties advocates predicted after the woman's initial detention
that the cocaine-mom law would be challenged in court.

The advocates contend that the law is unconstitutional because it says a
fetus is a human being from the time of fertilization and is legally
suspect because it detains people as a preventive measure.