LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Las Vegas-area mother is accused of using methamphetamine in her baby daughter’s presence, causing the child to test positive for the drug, police said.
Las Vegas Metro police arrested Sherry Schmidt, 40, on Sunday, Dec. 4, on a charge of child abuse or neglect resulting in substantial bodily harm, records the 8 News Now Investigators obtained said.
That day, police received a call from a nurse at University Medical Center about a 5-month-old girl who tested positive for methamphetamine.
Schmidt told investigators she went to a friend’s house where she smoked meth, documents said. She said she did not remember if she washed her hands after handling and smoking the drug.
After arriving home from the friend’s house, Schmidt noticed the child would not eat and was “cranky and fidgeting,” police said. She took the child to the hospital, where a test showed the presence of methamphetamine in her blood, police said.
Schmid told police she did not know how the child would have ingested the methamphetamine and suggested a fan in the bathroom where she smoked the meth may have “pushed the smoke around the apartment,” police said.
Judge Elana Lee Graham set Schmidt’s bail Monday at $10,000. She remained in custody as of Tuesday and was due in court again Wednesday.