A Burlington couple was charged with endangering the lives of three children after the couple used heroin and the man overdosed while they were all inside the home.
Amber Martin, 28, and Jeffrey McGraw, 32, were charged by the Racine County District Attorney’s Office with three counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety. In addition to those charges, Martin was charged with theft by acquisition of a credit card and McGraw was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. If convicted of all charges, the couple faces up to 30 years nine months in prison and/or fines up to $85,000.
According to the criminal complaint, an officer with the Burlington Police Department was dispatched at 6:47 p.m. Friday to an apartment at 625 Meadow Lane for a heroin overdose. When police arrived, they found McGraw laying on the floor not breathing and turning purple. Martin told police he had taken “a small amount of heroin through the nose” and a Suboxone pill.
As Martin and the officer talked, he performed CPR on McGraw and gave him two doses of Narcan, a drug used to reverse the effect of heroin. They also ended up using a defibrillator, but no shock was advised. Rescue personnel then arrived and they took over McGraw’s care.
Meanwhile, Martin told the officer she had also taken heroin. While the officer and rescue personnel worked on McGraw, a small boy entered the hallway and the officer asked him to go back in his bedroom. A small girl also entered the hallway. She hugged the officer and asked the officer “if her daddy was dead or if he was going to be OK.”
The officer told the girl her father was going to go to the hospital to get looked at. The two children went into a bedroom and a third child was also found in the home. The three children were taken to a relative’s home. Martin told police she flushed the heroin down the toilet. They found a glass smoking pipe in the bedroom, straws, and Suboxone pills on the floor next to a box of fruit roll-ups. Pills were also found in an area the children could reach. Searching Martin’s purse, the officers found four credit cards in another name.
After being treated, McGraw told police that Martin had bought the heroin, but he didn’t know who she bought the drugs from.
Racine County Court Commissioner Alice Rudebusch set a $500 cash bond for Martin and McGraw. A preliminary hearing was set for 8:30 a.m. Sept. 28.