Florida couple charged with neglect after 1-year-old boy overdosed on cocaine, cops say 

A Venice couple faces charges of child neglect after a 1-year-old boy in their care overdosed on cocaine earlier this year, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office.

On Jan. 8, sheriff’s office deputies and Sarasota County Fire Department staff responded to a medical emergency at a home on Park Road in Venice, where emergency responders found the 21-month-old child unconscious and not breathing. It took three doses of the opioid overdose-reversing medication naloxone to bring the boy back to consciousness, according to law enforcement.

The child was in the care of Kaitlyn Van Dorn, 33, and Blake Pavey, 34, according to the sheriff’s office.

According to an affidavit, Dorn told deputies that she and the boy were on a walk around the neighborhood when he picked up an unknown object and a needle cap and put them in his mouth. Dorn claimed she swatted the items out of the boy’s mouth, but he soon began stumbling and then went limp.

An ensuing investigation by the sheriff’s office detectives and the Florida Department of Children and Families found several discrepancies in Dorn and Pavey’s descriptions of events that night.

Dorn initially claimed that she and the boy carried a bucket with them on the walk to use for collecting rocks, according to the sheriff’s office. Dorn said that the bucket should still be located somewhere along the route of their walk, but neither it nor any drug paraphernalia was found, according to detectives. Pavey told detectives that Dorn had put the bucket down upon entering their home, but the detectives noted that it was not in sight. Dorn later produced the bucket from behind a closed closet door.

Inside the bucket was a spoon. Detectives say Dorn then contradicted her earlier statement and claimed that the “unknown object” the boy had placed in his mouth earlier was in fact the spoon. The item was sent to a drug laboratory for testing, where traces of fentanyl and cocaine were found, according to the sheriff’s office.

Deputies also found an object they described as a crack pipe in plain sight in Dorn and Pavey’s home, according to the affidavit. It was also tested, and traces of cocaine were found. Pavey initially claimed the pipe belonged to a friend, but later said that they were alone that night and had not had company, according to the sheriff’s office.

Detectives also obtained surveillance footage from a storage facility along the route that Dorn claimed she had walked with the boy. The woman and child did not appear in the video, according to the sheriff’s office.

The child has not been in Dorn or Pavey’s care since January, according to the sheriff’s office. Arrest warrants were issued for both individuals after it was recently confirmed through medical records that the child had overdosed on cocaine.

Dorn and Pavey are both charged with child neglect without great bodily harm, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison. They were booked into the Sarasota County Jail on Saturday. Pavey was released after he posted a $15,000 bond, while Dorn is currently held without bond due to a previous violation of probation charge.