SAVING THE METH-LAB KIDS

Law: Prosecutors, police and social services team to protect children
endangered by adults who make drugs at home.

Something was wrong with Steven. The 8 week old boy was not breathing. His
frantic parents could not wake him.

So the couple whisked Steven from their cluttered Anaheim motel room, past
the canisters of acetone and denatured alcohol they used to process
methamphetamine, to Martin Luther Hospital's emergency room. It was to late.

Steven Ray Bierly, the 11 pound boy who had been named after his father,
was dead on arrival. An autopsy determined the boy died from
methamphetamine poisoning. Police said they found the drug inside a baby
bottle Steven nursed from in July 1996 before he died. His parents, Steven
D. Bierly and Brandy Wilson, were charged with murder.

Police say children like Steven are often placed at risk by the booming
methamphetamine industry, by parents who have converted their home into
secret "speed" labs, sacrificing their children's safety for potentially
huge profits.

In response, the Orange County District Attorney's Office, Department of
Children's and Family Services and local and state police have united to
help these children-and punish their parents.

"It was a problem that wasn't being addressed. These kids were just falling
through the cracks," said Deputy District Attorney Cher DeCant, who started
the program in November with the help of a three-year, $775,000 state grant.

The program, dubbed Drug Endangered Children, sweeps into action each time
detectives find children at methamphetamine labs in Orange County. The
children are treated at Children's Hospital of Orange County, where they
are tested for signs of methamphetamine poisoning. A county social worker
starts an investigation of the child's home. DeCant works with police to
build possible criminal charges against parents.

Children are place in protective custody or with relatives, but only after
the new home is thoroughly screened by county social workers, DeCant said.

"In the past, the police would just drop them off with a neighbor or
anybody. Now at least we know they're going somewhere safe." DeCant said.

CHILDREN SUFFER MORE

Exposure to chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine can cause severe
illnesses, affecting major organs including the brain, liver, kidneys,
lungs and eyes, according to a report by the California Council on Criminal
Justice. Impairment of these organs can cause poor coordination, chronic
health problems, learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral problems
or even death, the report stated.

"Whatever expose the adult would have, the child will have double or three
times as much because their body can't eliminate the toxins," DeCant said.
"They don't have the same body mass, so it's more serious.

An Orange County lab enforcement team has found methamphetamine residue and
dangerous chemicals on everything from swing sets and cribs to food in the
refrigerator and baby bottles, said Gary Hudson,a special agent with the
state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.

"The people that are manufacturing, sometimes if the liquid gets too hot
they will stow it in the refrigerator right next to the kids' food," DeCant
said. "There was one case where they found it in some fried chicken that
was right next to some chemicals in the refrigerator."

The most infamous Southern California example of the danger posed by
home-brew speed labs was a 1995 explosion that killed three children,ages
1,2 and 3, in Riverside county in 1995. The children's mother, who fled the
explosion and survived, was later convicted of murder.

"The biggest problem is, you do have a lot of children around these labs,"
Hudson said. "This program is better than those designed to fight the labs,
because these children don't have a fighting chance. They don't have a
chance to say no or to leave."

Some children are so accustomed to methamphetamine manufacturing that they
know how to make the drug, Hudson said.

The labs-often with children nearby-are found everywhere in the county, he
said.

"Our labs vary from motels to hotels, to houses in exclusive areas in
Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda, to houses in more poverty-stricken areas,"
Hudson said. "We have labs in cars, trailers, trucks. They're everywhere."

Bierly and Wilson are accused of endangering Steven's life by forcing him
to live in a room at the Palm Motor Lodge where they converted
methamphetamine into a more potent form known as "ice." Their trial is
scheduled to begin Oct. 5 in Orange County Superior Court.

Police are uncertain how the methamphetamine ended up in Steven's bottle.
Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Henderson said the parents are guilty of
murder because they acted with reckless disregard for their baby's life.

The number of methamphetamine labs discovered annually by Orange County
police agencies swelled from 25 to 102 between 1994 and 1997 - an increase
of more than 300 percent, DeCant said.

Since November, the project has identified 28 endangered children at 13
Orange County methamphetamine laboratories, DeCant said. Seventeen people,
most of them parents, have been charged with child endangerment those
cases, she said. Seven have already been convicted.

JAIL TIME ADDED

New state laws make it possible for methamphetamine manufacturers to face
additional prison time if children are found in their labs. If a child
tests positive for methamphetamine, their parents can face five years in
prison on top of any time they receive for manufacturing or selling the drug.

DeCant said she trains detectives to build child endangerment cases at drug
laboratories. She encourages them to obtain photographs of dangerous
chemicals and illegal drugs near children's toys, cribs and play areas.

While DeCant takes aim at the parents, a social worker tries to ensure that
the children never again live within drug labs. The children are tracked
for 18 months and examined for signs of psychological, medical or
educational problems that could be related to exposure to methamphetamine,
DeCant said.

"Our hope with this is we'll develop an approach so these kids won't be
burned up or killed in these deadly environments," she said.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski