MOTHER ARRESTED FOR FORCING CHILD TO SMOKE AN ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE SO SHE WOULD "STOP TALKING'" (1325 hits)
An Oklahoma City mother was arrested for the ill treatment of her 7-year-old child who she sometimes locked out of the house and recently gave an e-cigarette to smoke to stop talking.
Daphne Steen, 46, was arrested Thursday afternoon on a child neglect complaint after police found her asleep in her apartment while her daughter was locked outside.
The girl told police she was locked out of the apartment when she came home from school at 3:30 pm Thursday, according to News Ok.
She had knocked on her front door and got no answer, so she knocked on a neighbor's door, she said.
At about 9:15 p.m., the neighbor called police, fearing the girl's mother was ill.
The girl told police her mother had recently given her an e-cigarette and told her to smoke it to get her to stop talking.
The girl's aunt told police she had noticed the girl regularly went to school without bathing and frequently wore the same clothes, according to News Ok.
Police tried knocking on the door and called several of the girl's family members before an officer climbed into Steen's house through an open window and opened the front door to let other officers in. Police found Steen asleep in her bed and arrested her.
Steen told police she had fallen into a deep sleep because of medications she had taken and didn't hear anyone knocking on the door.
She was being held at the Oklahoma County jail Friday on $10,000 bond, with an additional $2,579 in unpaid traffic tickets and other citations. The daughter was left with her father.
