SOME PEOPLE SHOULD BE SHOT

Parents Sentenced For Forcing Children To Sniff CocaineNews Edition: 07/25/2007

COLUMBIA, S.C.-- A Lexington County couple were each sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for forcing their children to snort crack cocaine. Circuit Judge Kenneth Goode sentenced Brandon Suggs, 24, and Ragane Suggs, 30, after they entered an Alford plea to child abuse with great bodily injury, meaning they didn't admit guilt but acknowledged that prosecutors likely have enough evidence to convict them.


The couple had forced their 5-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter to snort what they called "white medicine" through a straw, authorities said.

"He was very explicit as to that they had to suck it up through a straw, him and his sister, and that sometimes (his sister) would cry and it would choke her -- and that mom and dad were present," said Danielle Belk, a detective with the Cayce Department of Public Safety who interviewed the boy.

The parents were arrested Feb. 15 after they walked out of a store without paying for food. When officers arrived, they found the children were dirty and placed them in emergency protective custody.

Two weeks later, social workers noticed that the children were showing withdrawal symptoms and test results came back positive for cocaine.

The parents admitted smoking crack cocaine in front of their children but denied forcing their children to snort the drug. But the levels of the drug in each child's system were so high it would be impossible to have gotten them from fumes, said Dr. Bob Stafford, medical director for the Lexington-Richland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council.

The children have been living with relatives, Belk said.