A foster mother, a baby and a bong

Foster mom photographed while high on pot
Eileen Kelley. Cincinnati Enquirer. Sept. 21, 2006.

MOUNT WASHINGTON - Marijuana, smoke, a bong, a red-hot flame - and a baby.Photos document images of a Hamilton County foster mother caring this week for a little girl while high on marijuana.

Some five weeks after the Marcus Fiesel case cast a spotlight on the quality of foster care locally, another foster mom is in hot water with authorities and has had the children she was caring for taken away.

One of the last photos taken sometime between Monday night and early Tuesday shows Stephanie Edwards, 25, on the ground cuddling the nine-month-old baby girl who has been in her care since she was born.

Edwards admitted Wednesday she was high from smoking marijuana when that photo was taken, but denied smoking it in front of the baby girl.

A deputy, however, said one photo does show that.

Edwards, a foster parent for the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services for the past year, was removed from the county's roster of eligible foster parents Wednesday after a deputy in Anderson Township asked the right questions Tuesday evening.

She will no longer be able to care for the little girl or another foster child, a 1-year-old boy, until the county investigation is complete.

A CVS photo lab employee in Anderson Township called deputies Tuesday to express his concern about the nature of the pictures when the lab was asked to develop Edwards' prints.

Deputy Dave Vargo went to Edwards' Clermont County workplace Tuesday evening, the Jelly Bean Junction Learning Center on Clough Pike, and questioned her about the baby's father.

He didn't expect the answer he received.

"I'm a foster parent," she told him.

"I said, 'Excuse me?' " Vargo said.

Both children were taken from her care Tuesday evening and handed over to 2-4-1 Kids, the child protective services arm of Job and Family Services.

Vargo arrested Edwards on two misdemeanor counts of child endangering Tuesday evening. She was booked in the Hamilton County jail and released just after noon on Wednesday.

"I did make a stupid mistake," said Edwards after her release. "But (the photos) are very misleading at the same time. I love those babies and I would do anything to get them back. I would never do anything to hurt them. The whole situation never should have happened in the first place and I regret it."

Edwards didn't deny being high in front of the baby girl, but she said the photos don't tell the whole story. She said the smoke in the photos is from a fog machine she recently bought for Halloween and not from smoking on the bong, a water pipe used to smoke marijuana, in front of the little girl.

Vargo said the baby is pictured in about 80 percent of the photographs, including a photograph where Edwards is holding the bong to her mouth and has a lighter over the pipe.

Edwards said she put the baby girl and boy to bed around 9 p.m. and started to get high with her boyfriend. She said the girl woke up sometime between 11 p.m. and midnight. She then brought the child into the room where she and her boyfriend continued to take photographs.

She was told she lost her job at the day-care center, one she started Monday, after her arrest.

She said she was also told by Hamilton County's foster-care system that her situation did not look good.

She said she was in the process of firming up the paperwork to adopt the infant boy in her care.

"They said there's not a good chance" of that happening, Edwards said.

The agency is conducting an investigation and no foster children will be placed in Edwards' care until it is complete.

Regardless of the outcome, if Edwards is convicted of child endangering, she would not be allowed to become a foster parent with the county, guidelines show.

Vargo said the case of 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel, who died in foster care, played a role in the questions he asked Edwards. He said he now won't take anything for granted and will ask questions he never thought to ask before.

Marcus was reported missing Aug. 15 by his foster mother, Liz Carroll.Thousands of people, including Edwards, searched a nearby Anderson Township park for the developmentally disabled child. Liz Carroll and her husband Dave Carroll Jr. are being held in the Clermont County jail on murder and other charges.

Edwards' case irks Greg Hartmann, the Hamilton County clerk of courts.

"This is outrageous," said Hartmann. "We've got to have the big picture really looked at; what kind of idiots are taking care of our children?"

Hartmann's agency is compiling a database of all Hamilton County foster parents.
The names will be automatically matched against people arrested in Hamilton County.

The database should be complete in about two weeks, Hartmann said Wednesday.

"The more scrutiny, the better," Hartmann said. "It's our job to make sure we don't have these idiots raising our kids."

Edwards cried Wednesday when she talked about losing her foster-care children, but downplayed her pot smoking.

"There is so much worse that people can do, like emotional damage," she said. "Alcohol is legal. It would have been a lot worse trying to take care of a baby when you are drunk then when you (smoke pot). Really."