BOYNTON COPS TENDED BABIES AS MOTHERS OD’D
Pair charged with neglect; babies, 1 and 2 months old, given to relatives.
BOYNTON BEACH — By the time Boynton Beach police arrived at a scene Oct. 5 where two mothers had overdosed inside a vehicle, paramedics were already working on the unconscious women.
All there was left for a responding officer to do was calm two screaming babies strapped to car seats. Video from a body camera released Tuesday shows the officer speaking sweetly to one of the babies while placing a pacifier inside the infant’s mouth.
“It’s OK. It’s OK,” the officer says as the baby begins to settle.
The infants’ mothers — Kristen Leigh O’Connor of Coral Springs and June Ann Schweinhart of Greenacres — were taken to a hospital and then the Palm
Beach County Jail. O’Connor, 27, and Schweinhart, 28, each face child neglect charges.
The babies, ages 1 month and 2 months, were brought to the police department and were turned over to family members after the Florida Department of Children and Families was notified.
Paramedics found the women and their babies inside a 2006 Ford Expedition in the 500 block of East Woolbright Road.
The body camera video shows Schweinhart inside an ambulance while first responders treat the unconscious O’Connor inside the SUV.
The women told police they became friends after spending time in the same drug - treatment center and drew closer after both became pregnant and were given the same due date.
On Oct. 5, the women decided to hang out and brought their babies along with them, police said. They bought $60 worth of heroin, then snorted it while the children were strapped to their seats, according to an arrest report.
Before she became unconscious, Schweinhart managed to call 911 and told a dispatcher that O’Connor appeared to be having a seizure.
“She’s like, out,” Schwein- hart said.
“Is she still conscious?” the dispatcher says. “Is she seizing?”
Slurring her words, Schweinhart responds: “Yes, yeah, she’s breathing. She can barely ... “
In the background, the two babies can be heard cry- ing. The dispatcher is confused and seems to think the sounds are O’Connor strug- gling to breathe.
“Is that her in the background making noises?” the dispatcher says. “Is that her trying to breathe?”
Schweinhart begins to respond before handing off the phone to a bystander who tells the dispatcher that O’Connor is unconscious.
“She’s struggling to get air,” the man said, according to a 911 tape.
Schweinhart also overdosed and became unconscious.
Schweinhart spent a little over a day at the Palm Beach County Jail and was released Friday after posting a $3,000 bond. O’Connor posted a $4,500 bond and also was released Friday.
The women were ordered not to have any contact with each other and are permitted visits with their respective children only with an another adult present.
Child neglect is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.