DRUG WAR ON MOMS

Author: Troy Anderson DAILYNEWS.COM

Toddler, Newborn Wrongly Torn From Family in Stepped-Up Screening of Pregnant Women

Awakened by late-night pounding and his doorbell ringing, Palmdale resident Jesus Bejarano found a social worker and two sheriff’s deputies demanding he turn over his 20-month-old daughter, Kelly.

The social worker said Bejarano’s 29-year-old wife, Cheila Herrera, had tested positive for amphetamines and PCP at Antelope Valley Hospital after giving birth to the couple’s son a week earlier.  Their son, Jesse, who was born prematurely and was still at the hospital, had already been placed in protective custody.

“It was terrible,” Herrera said of the Feb.  14 ordeal.  “It was pretty shocking to us.  We didn’t know what to do or say.  We called my mom, saying, ‘They are taking our baby away.’

“We started calling friends, but no one we know has gone through something like this.  We were crying.  We thought, oh my God, they took our baby.”

Last month, the couple sued Los Angeles County government for unspecified damages, saying Herrera had never used drugs and the social worker ignored a battery of expensive tests that proved the initial drug-test results were wrong.

Experts say the case highlights widespread problems with California’s system of drug-testing pregnant mothers, using urine-screening tests that produce false-positives up to 70 percent of the time, and inconsistent compliance by hospitals with a state law designed to regulate the process.

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