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Parents accused of failing to care for sick baby

Alonzo J. Fleischer

A Butler couple is charged with failing to get adequate medical care for their badly ill and injured baby boy.

The neglect, Butler police said, left the child near death.

Alonzo J. Fleischer, 23, and Brooke R. Fair Smith, 25, are both facing felony counts of child endangerment.

Fleischer, who already was in the Butler County Prison in connection with a separate child endangerment case, was arraigned Monday on the latest charge. Bail was set at $25,000.

District Judge William Fullerton on Monday issued an arrest warrant for Fair Smith.

Police said the defendants' baby, who is now 5 months old, was born with neonatal abstinence syndrome due to Fair Smith using methadone and marijuana while pregnant.

When the baby was released from Magee Women's Hospital in Pittsburgh, according to investigators, the pediatrician treating him recommended visiting nurses make regular visits at the defendants' apartment to assess the child and, if needed, to administer care.

There were to be eight visits over a seven-week period. But nurses were only able to make two of those visits, police said, because Fleischer and Fair Smith would not answer the door or telephone, or return phone calls.

The parents subsequently “discharged (the baby) from the visiting nurses against medical advice,” court documents said.

The couple also are accused of not taking the child to his pediatrician for regular wellness check-ups.

Read more about this case in Tuesday's Butler Eagle.

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