I DIDN'T FEED CHILD CRACK, WOMAN TELLS COURT

A woman accused of feeding a four-year-old boy Ritalin and crack cocaine
testified yesterday she gave him the prescription drug in a desperate
attempt to control the child.

But admitted addict Joyce Hayman maintained she didn't force-feed cocaine
to the tot.

"I never gave him some and I never smoked it in the same room," said
Hayman, adding though she doubted it, she couldn't be "absolutely sure" the
boy didn't pick up "a crumb" (of crack) and eat it. She also said he may
have gotten what court has heard were "enormously high" levels of the drug
"from the air."

Prosecutor Paul Normandeau didn't buy it, alleging she "was poisoning
(that) little boy."

Drug experts testified such high levels of cocaine were unlikely to be
caused by second-hand smoke, but Dr. Gideon Koren added he couldn't rule it
out. Dr. Julia Klein said in her opinion it's not from smoke, but was
ingested -- and up to three times a week for at least three months.

Hayman testified she would cook down her $100 of cocaine every night in a
baby jar, but she put a towel under the boy's door and a hanger on the knob
to keep him in. The coke was secured away and none was left over, she
testified, admitting she paid for it by selling drugs to friends, and
taking the boy with her to do it.

Hayman said the boy was delayed in development, but as he grew he became
hyper and aggressive. Hayman said he "came at me very violently" once and
stabbed her under the eye.

Hayman said she began asking doctors what she could do to calm him down,
but said they didn't help. Then she discovered Ritalin on TV's 60 Minutes.
Doctors wouldn't prescribe it for her, but after what she called "extensive
research" she began buying it from a friend.

She said the first time it was an adult dose and realized it was "way, way
too much. He was way too high ... looking nowhere."

Hayman said she cut the dose in half and he seemed "more normal ... it
seemed like the pill was doing what I wanted it to do." A CAS worker and a
foster mother testified the boy was like a "zombie" when he was seized June
6, 1996.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)