Alabama woman jailed for 'endangering' her fetus with drugs wasn't even pregnant at the time: lawsuit
An Alabama woman who was jailed for allegedly using drugs during pregnancy has filed a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office saying she wasn’t pregnant, AL.com reports.
According to her lawsuit, an investigation was launched against Stacey Freeman by the Department of Human Resources for substance use when one of her children told a social worker her mom was pregnant. Freeman offered to take a pregnancy test and Etowah County Department of Human Resources employees ordered one for her, but she never ended up taking the test and Etowah County Sheriff Investigator Brandi Fuller issued a warrant for her arrest.
She was arrested and charged with chemical endangerment of a child. She was released a little over a day after her arrest and the charges were dropped.
“It’s just shameful you can go off somebody’s word that somebody’s pregnant,” her attorney Martin Weinberg said. “It’s easy to verify through a pregnancy test.”
Fuller has been involved in “an obscene number of arrests for pregnant and postpartum women,” according to the lawsuit.
“The Sheriff’s department and its employees have been reckless in investigating in making arrests of women for chemical endangerment and then encouraging their prosecution,” the lawsuit said.
While her charges have been dropped, they haven’t been expunged, making the case still available as a public record. The warrant incorrectly states that Freeman tested positive for marijuana, amphetamines and alcohol while pregnant.
Read the full report over at AL.com.
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