A Baldwin County man and woman were arrested Tuesday evening outside a Daphne courthouse on drug-related charges — and, in one case, an allegation that a small child was exposed to illegal drugs.
According to the Daphne Police Department, a patrol officer working security at the courthouse spotted 30-year-old Cody Hicks, of Bay Minette, smoking marijuana in a car in the parking area at about 5:20 p.m. During a probable cause search that followed, the officer found marijuana and other drug paraphernalia beside a car seat.
The car belonged to 25-year-old Autumn Baker, of Spanish Fort, who police said was attending court at the time with her three-year-old child.
What officers found
In a statement, the department said Baker smelled “strongly” of marijuana and admitted to having methamphetamine in her purse and in her car. The discovery of paraphernalia beside a car seat turned a routine security stop into a child endangerment case.
Hicks was arrested and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and felony possession of marijuana. Baker was booked on four charges: second-degree possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, felony chemical endangerment of a child, and felony possession of a controlled substance.
Both were taken to the Baldwin County Corrections Center. The child was released to an uninvolved family member, and the department said the incident has been reported to the Alabama Department of Human Resources.
Why the child endangerment charge
Alabama’s chemical endangerment law, on the books since 2006 and strengthened several times since, makes it a felony to expose a child to an environment in which controlled substances are present or used. Prosecutors have used the statute in cases across the state where young children were found near drugs, and courts have upheld its use in circumstances far less direct than finding drug paraphernalia beside a child’s car seat.
The law’s purpose, prosecutors have said in past cases, is to reach conduct that puts children at risk without requiring proof of injury. A felony charge can follow from a child simply being present where drugs are being used or stored, which is why a marijuana cigarette and a pipe in a car with a toddler can escalate into a felony case rather than a misdemeanor.
Drugs and courthouses
Courthouse security stops of this kind are not unusual in Baldwin County or elsewhere in Alabama. Courthouses concentrate foot traffic from people with pending cases, many of them facing exactly the kind of charges that bring them into regular contact with law enforcement, and deputies and police officers assigned to courthouse security routinely make arrests in the parking lots and hallways outside courtrooms.
What made Tuesday’s case notable was the combination: marijuana use in plain view of a security officer, admitted methamphetamine, and a three-year-old in the middle of it. Under department policy, any incident involving a child and controlled substances is referred to state child welfare authorities, and the report to DHR will trigger its own review of the family’s circumstances.
Baker faces the most serious exposure of the two. A felony chemical endangerment conviction can carry prison time, and the additional felony controlled-substance charge stacks a potential sentence on top of it. Hicks’ felony marijuana possession charge also carries potential prison time, though first-time offenders on marijuana possession charges are frequently diverted into treatment or probation programs at the discretion of prosecutors and the court.
Neither arrestee has been arraigned yet, and court dates had not been scheduled as of the department’s statement. Charges are accusations; both defendants are presumed innocent unless convicted.
The Daphne Police Department declined further comment, citing the ongoing investigation and the involvement of a minor.