Boy from overdose picture said to be doing well now
EAST LIVERPOOL — A 4-year-old boy who gained worldwide attention earlier this month when a photograph of him in a vehicle with two unconscious people was posted on the Internet is doing well, according to family members.
Contacted in South Carolina Wednesday, the little boy’s maternal aunt released a statement she said was prepared with the help of the family’s attorney.
The aunt, Lori Lane, said, “We want him to live as normal a life as possible. He’s just a normal little boy. Nobody did anything intentional except the two people in the front seat of that car.”
She said it was decided to prepare a statement due to some misinformation being shared about the situation and her nephew.
In the statement, Lane and her husband Terry wrote, “We had tried to avoid making any statement as we had hoped to protect our nephew’s identity and privacy,” but said due to the photographs and news reports disseminated, believed they had to correct misinformation while assuring people of the child’s well-being.
The statement gives the child’s history, relating that he went to live with Mrs. Lane’s parents at 8 days old and they sought custody at 4 months old due to his biological parents’ issues with substance abuse.
About two years ago, his great-grandparents realized the child’s parents were not going to overcome their addiction and be able to care for him and began considering placement in the home of a younger relative.
“As much as they loved and wanted to continue to care and provide for him, they knew being in their 80s that they likely would not be around to raise him through adulthood,” the Lanes wrote.
“They very much wanted him to have what every child should have: A home with a family that can love, care and provide for him both now and in the future, therefore, at their request and with their consent, we stepped in and sought custody of him,” they related in their statement.
They said it is important to note that, over the past two years, the boy’s biological parents were served with notices of all court filings pertaining to his custody and “either one of them could have stepped in at any time to request custody if, in fact, they were sober, willing and able to properly take care of their child,” but they never did so.
Once the Lanes filed a petition with the court seeking custody, the child’s paternal grandmother, Rhonda Pasek, also filed a petition seeking custody.
In July of this year, Columbiana County Juvenile/Probate Court Judge Thomas Baronzzi awarded custody to Pasek in what the Lanes called “a highly contested custodial dispute.”
The Lanes wrote, “While we had many concerns about Rhonda’s ability to care and provide for our nephew, including her past history of substance abuse, and did not believe it was in his best interest for custody to be granted to her, we did not know about the extent of her current substance abuse or that she was specifically using heroin or another illegal drug.”
Pasek was granted custody of the boy six weeks prior to the Sept. 7 incident during which he was photographed by police in the back seat of the vehicle in which she and her companion, James Acord, had lapsed into unconsciousness from an apparent drug overdose.
According to the Lanes, they learned about the incident when the photos were posted on social media.
“It was very disturbing and upsetting for us, his great-grandparents and the other family members that know and love him to see these photographs and learn about what happened to him in that way,” they wrote.
They said, more importantly, they wish the child had not had to witness this happening to his grandmother the first time, “let alone relive it again in the future by seeing the photographs.”
Nonetheless, they wrote, “At this point, all we can do is hope that something positive can come from all of this. We have seen how substance abuse can devastate families just like it has to our nephew’s. We can only hope that publishing the photographs and information about our nephew will bring enough awareness to this issue that another child will not have to see and go through what (he) did.”
The Lanes said the child is “doing well” at their South Carolina home, saying he is “happy, healthy and very much loved.”
Saying he had visited their home regularly over the past two years, they said, “When he came to live with us last week, he didn’t get ‘a new home.’ He was already part of our family and always had a home with us. We feel very fortunate to have him with us right now and hope that we can continue to give him the home that he needs and deserves.”
The couple expects to appear next week in court for a custody hearing.
Meanwhile, Pasek was given six months in county jail for endangering children, disorderly conduct/intoxication in regard to the incident, while Acord was sentenced to one year in county jail for endangering children and OVI in the same case.
A request late last week by Acord for early release from jail was denied by East Liverpool Municipal Judge Melissa Byers Emmerling.
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