Siedia Cherrell Bell, 38, of Fishers, was charged with a Level 6 felony count of neglect of a dependent and a Class B misdemeanor of reckless supervision by a child care supervisor over a 12 November incident.[1] The case was filed in Hancock Superior Court 2.[1] Bell was arrested on Thursday, and a judge set a $1,000 cash bond at a Friday morning initial hearing.[1] She is due back in court in March for a pretrial conference, Hancock County Prosecutor Brent Eaton said.[1]
A mother contacted police after her 3-year-old daughter came home not feeling normal on 12 November from Tots R’ Us, a day care in the 3700 block of Shadeland Avenue on Indianapolis’s east side.[2] The day care is at 3709 Shadeland Ave.[2] The child told her mother she had eaten a gummy that made her feel weird.[2] An at-home drug test was positive for THC, and a hospital drug screen was positive for cannabinoids.[2] Court documents do not say how much of the gummy the child ingested.[2] Her family said she recovered fully from the THC exposure.[2]
A day-care employee told the mother she had firsthand knowledge the child consumed THC gummies taken from Bell’s jacket pocket.[2] The day the child allegedly ate the gummy, the day-care owner took her from the Indianapolis day care to the owner’s home in Greenfield because of structural issues, and IMPD handed the investigation to Greenfield police.[2] The probable-cause affidavit says the mother reported that Bell had THC gummies in her jacket and had laid the jacket on the child at a Greenfield home.[1] An Indiana Metropolitan Police Department detective contacted Greenfield police on 17 November about the neglect report.[1]
A Department of Child Services case worker met Bell on 21 December.[2] Bell admitted having marijuana gummies in her jacket pocket but said she had removed them before the child had access to the jacket.[2] She told officers she had moved the marijuana candies to her glove compartment before the children were in her vehicle.[1] She told a DCS worker that she had told the girl’s mother there was no way the child got the THC gummies out of her pocket.[2] Online court records showed an active warrant for her arrest when the charge was first reported.[2]
