AT CUSTODY HEARING, MOTHER CHOOSES DRUG TREATMENT

Court: Addict plans to begin rehabilitation after serving 30 days for child
endangerment. Judge OKs visits with daughter, who was among children
profiled in The Times.

The mother of 3yearold Tamika Triggsdressed in jailhouse blues with
her arms cuffed behind her backsaid during a custody hearing Thursday
that she wants treatment for heroin addiction, a move she hopes will lead
to being reunited with her daughter.

Theodora Triggs, 34, plans to immediately begin drug rehabilitation after
her release from jail, where she is serving a 30day sentence for
misdemeanor child endangerment.

Superior Court Judge Owen Lee Kwong of the juvenile division approved
monitored visits between Triggs and Tamika.

During the hearing, Triggs was not asked to make any lengthy statements.
She simply said "yes" when asked if she was willing to undergo drug
treatment.

The judge also ordered that the mother undergo parenting classes and random
drug tests. "We are trying to help everyone hereyou and your daughter,"
Judge Kwong told Triggs.

Triggs was arrested Sunday and her daughter was placed in foster care after
a series in The Times, "Orphans of Addiction," documented the kind of
neglect that Tamikaalong with hundreds of thousands of other children
across the countrysuffer at the hands of substanceabusing parents.

Triggs told The Times during the reporting of its series that her love for
her daughter is often overtaken by her addiction to heroin and cocaine.

At the hearing, Kwong issued no ruling concerning Tamika's longterm custody.

Federal law states that child protection agencies make diligent efforts to
reunite a mother and a child before considering permanent foster care or
adoption.

Generally, children are not put up for adoption or longterm foster care
until they have been in protective custody for 18 months.

Tamika's courtappointed attorney, Lawrence A. Aufill, said he had talked
with Tamika's temporary foster mother Wednesday night and is confident she
"is getting excellent care. . . . The foster mother says the girl is doing
very well."

Aufill said he had requested counseling and "play therapy" for Tamika to
help her recover from the ordeal of living with a heroinaddicted
motherand the trauma of being separated from the only parent she has known.

Tamika's father is in a Colorado prison.

The judge set the mother's next court hearing for Dec. 3.

Copyright Los Angeles Times