Two months after her daughter overdosed on a fatal drug cocktail under the watch of a friend, an Alliance mom was crushed to learn that charges would not be filed in the case.
“I know my daughter is guilty in this — I do — and like I’ve said repeatedly, she paid the ultimate price,” said Jacqueline Bradt, mother of 25-year-old Kristen Dunn.
Dunn was found “not breathing and unresponsive” on February 25 at the home of a friend, according to police records.
“But Kristen is not the only person to blame,” she said.
Bradt was told by Alliance police that her daughter's friend noticed she was having difficulty breathing, describing it as a “Xanax snore.”
“The detective said she couldn’t wake her up," Bradt said. "She couldn’t get her awake and all she did was get some pillows and prop her up with pillows and then she went ahead and just went to bed for the night."
The next morning, Dunn was discovered dead.
“Why didn’t she pick up the phone and make a simple phone call?” Bradt said. “Call 911, that’s all it would have taken.”
But Bradt learned this week that the friend would not be charged in the death of Dunn. She also learned that assigning blame in fatal overdose cases like these is not always cut and dry.
Alliance’s Law Director, Jennifer Arnold, said her office thoroughly reviewed the file but there was not enough evidence to charge anyone in this case.
“While her death is, of course, a tragedy,” Arnold said in a message to News 5. “A lot of times there is not a criminal situation in regards to the people who are around her and in regards to the Good Samaritan Law.”
Ohio’s Good Samaritan law was passed last year and provides immunityto residents who report someone overdosing on heroin, opioids or other drugs.
When it comes to legal charges, prosecutors are required to provide evidence that a person willfully allowed the overdose victim to die.
Bradt said she’s devastated with the outcome and is calling on a more thorough investigation from the city.
“Junkies are people too, drug addicts are people, too. They have lives, they have people who love them and they are treated like garbage,” she said.
News 5 also reached out to the friend involved in the incident but she declined to comment on the record.
RELATED:
Ohio's Good Samaritan Law: Loophole may allow drug users to slip through the cracks
