'COCAINE MOM' IS CHARGED IN JULY DISTURBANCE OUTSIDE WAUKESHA BAR

Her 12-year-old Son, Two Other People Were Also Arrested, Authorities Say

Waukesha - A Waukesha woman whose cocaine abuse during two pregnancies
helped spur the so-called "cocaine mom" law to protect fetuses was charged
Thursday in connection with a July incident in which she and her
12-year-old son allegedly caused a disturbance outside a Waukesha tavern.

The 28-year-old woman, who is being identified by the Journal Sentinel only
by her first name, Angela, to protect her children, has not had additional
arrests or referrals for charges since July, Assistant District Attorney
Susan Opper said Thursday.

But in the July 30 incident, Waukesha police officers ultimately arrested
both the woman and her son, as well as two other individuals in a group
that police say became raucous, profane and obstructive, according to a
criminal complaint filed Thursday.

The Waukesha woman had been released from jail July 2 after serving three
weeks there for possessing a crack cocaine pipe that officers found hidden
in her shoe.

The woman was sentenced to probation for the pipe conviction and was a
client at one of the state's premier substance abuse treatment centers, the
Meta House in Milwaukee.

But after counselors there said the woman had "basically run amok" and blew
off their attempts to rehabilitate her, the woman's probation agent revoked
her probation and she received the jail time.

The woman's history made national headlines starting in 1995 when her
physician reported that she was refusing to quit using cocaine while pregnant.

In an unprecedented move that was later declared illegal by a 4-3 vote of
the Wisconsin Supreme Court, a Waukesha County Juvenile Court judge used
child protection laws to detain the woman to protect her fetus from the
woman's cocaine abuse.

The high court's ruling that state law did not define a fetus as a child
prompted state legislators to pass a law in 1998 giving judges authority to
detain pregnant drug-abusing women.

According to the criminal complaint filed Thursday, a police officer said
the Waukesha woman flagged him down as he was driving on Main St. She was
with a large group of people standing outside K&D Tap, 223 W. Main St., at
nearly 1 a.m., the complaint says.

Opper said that the woman wanted the officer to tell her 12-year-old son
and three other children to go home and stop following the adults.

"She wanted the cop to take the kids home so she could go to the bar,"
Opper said. Opper said she did not know whether the children ever entered
the bar.

The 12-year-old, who lives with his grandmother, who is his legal guardian,
became irate and screamed obscenities at his mother, the complaint says.
The boy made news a year ago for winning a prize in an anti-drug-abuse
poster contest. Angela attended the award ceremony.

According to the complaint, the officer moved to arrest the boy for
disorderly conduct, angering his mother, who protested "extremely loudly
and lunged for her son."

Others in the crowd began screaming, and officers arrested the son, his
mother and two others, one of whom had a marijuana pipe.

The mother, who was booked and released with her son that morning, was
summoned Thursday to appear in court Dec. 20 to answer the charge.

If convicted of the misdemeanor offense of resisting an officer, she could
be sentenced to up to nine months in jail.

Opper could not explain the reason for the delay in filing the charges,
except to say they were not a priority.