Mother's boyfriend charged in OD case
EAST BUTLER — State police have charged the boyfriend of a woman who allegedly overdosed on heroin while seven months pregnant with her second child.
Andy W. Lucas, 37, of East Butler faces three misdemeanors in the case that has attracted national and international attention.
Investigators on Friday charged Lucas with child endangerment, corruption of minors and possession of drug paraphernalia. He is being held at a halfway house in Erie County stemming from a parole violation.
Police on June 28 arrested Lucas' live-in girlfriend, 30-year-old Kasey R. Dischman, several days after they say she injected herself with heroin at the couple's home on Tenth Street in East Butler.
The June 23 overdose prompted an emergency cesarean section and the baby, a girl, suffered “lasting injuries,” according to court records.
Upon the approval of the Butler County District Attorney's office, police charged Dischman with aggravated assault of an unborn child — a charge rarely filed in the state and never before in the county against a pregnant woman.
Lucas, the father of Dischman's unborn child and the couple's 6-year-old daughter, was at home and called 911 to report finding his girlfriend unresponsive in the bathroom.
But when police arrived at the home he allegedly lied about what happened to Dischman. He claimed she had a seizure disorder and said she did not use drugs, documents said.
Additionally, he denied moving anything or destroying evidence.
Paramedics got there and told police that Dischman had a closed head injury and was vomiting with seizure-like activity, investigators said.
She was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital, where she went into cardiac arrest. She was flown to UPMC Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh and subsequently placed on a ventilator.
She wasn't treated for an overdose until a test at Mercy Hospital revealed opioids in her blood, said Trooper Brian Knirnschild, the investigating officer.
Because of what Lucas told first-responders, emergency crews did not administer the opioid antidote Narcan, which would have been crucial in directly treating Dischman and indirectly her unborn child.
Dischman was subsequently transferred to UPMC Magee-Women's Hospital in Pittsburgh, where her baby girl was delivered by emergency C-section the day after the overdose.
The baby is reportedly recovering but her condition is not known.
Lucas was arrested June 23 on a parole violation after failing a drug test. He was placed in the State Correctional Institution in Mercer and later moved to a halfway house in Erie.
A warrant search of the defendant's home turned up a used hypodermic needle that was in a makeup case in the bathroom.
Police on July 7 interviewed Lucas and he “admitted to buying two unmarked stamp bags of heroin,” documents said, “and using heroin the night that Dischman overdosed.”
He used the drugs, police said, while supervising the couple's 6-year-old child.
Police said Lucas would be charged by summons and his preliminary hearing was not immediately scheduled.
Dischman, meanwhile, is being held in the Butler County Prison on $500,000 bail while awaiting trial in the case.
