Police: Teens filmed young kids smoking pot
Watauga police say uncle, friend got small boys to use marijuana 'blunt'
09:00 PM CST on Monday, March 5, 2007
By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News
teiserer@dallasnews.com
On the home video, a teenage uncle and his friend laugh and giggle as they watch a toddler and his 5-year-old brother smoke a marijuana cigar at the Watauga home.
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The disturbing video – seen across the nation in news reports – prompted police to arrest the two teens and Child Protective Services to place the two children in foster care.
"It is unbelievable," said Bruce Ure, public safety director for the Watauga Department of Public Safety. "You can hear one of them say, 'Let's get high.' And they're just encouraging them to keep puffing on it."
Police are still investigating and haven't ruled out charges against a third teen, a 16-year-old who was the cameraman, or the mother, who was in the house at the time.
Fort Worth police came across the video on Feb. 22 when they executed a search warrant at a home in the 6000 block of Hickoryhill Road in Watauga, Mr. Ure said.
Police said the two teens pictured in the video, Demetris McCoy, the boys' uncle, and Vanswan Polty, are suspects in several area burglaries.
When the officers returned to the Fort Worth station, they viewed the recording, Mr. Ure said.
"They were appalled," he said. "They looked at the inside of the house on the video, and they said, 'That's the house we just came from.' "
Fort Worth police then notified Watauga officials.
Mr. McCoy, 17, was arrested Feb. 23 and remained in the Tarrant County Jail on Sunday.
Mr. Polty, 18, was arrested Friday at a relative's home in Fort Worth and is in the Watauga City Jail.
Both men were being held in lieu of $150,000 bail and face two counts of injury to a child, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The video was shot at a home that belongs to Mr. McCoy's grandmother, Mr. Ure said.
Mr. McCoy and Mr. Polty lived there, along with the children and their mother. The home is across the street from an elementary school.
The mother told police that she didn't know that her children had been given marijuana and that she was asleep in a back bedroom at the time of the recording.
Mr. Ure said that in the video, Mr. McCoy is sitting in an overstuffed living room chair.
He places a marijuana cigar, called a "blunt," into the 2-year-old's mouth and tries to light it with a lighter.
He then takes it back and lights it before returning it to the toddler's mouth, Mr. Ure said.
The toddler shares the marijuana cigar with the 5-year-old and holds the "blunt like a 20-year-old doper," Mr. Ure said.
"The 2-year-old is puffing away and obviously inhaling. He's coughing like he's got a smoker's cough," Mr. Ure said. "The 2-year-old is stumbling. He's giggling. He's falling down. He's debilitated. Our suspects are just laughing uncontrollably. They think this is the funniest thing they ever saw."
The camera then pans to Mr. Polty, who laughingly makes an obscene gesture, Mr. Ure said.
On the video, Mr. McCoy also calls the children "potheads" and jokes about them having the "munchies" when the children begin fighting over crackers. The 5-year-old, police said, hit the 2-year-old in the head to get the crackers.
"You would think out of sheer family values, McCoy would have stood up for his nephews and said, 'We shouldn't do this,' " Mr. Ure said.
Mr. Ure said investigators haven't interviewed the children but believe that they probably were given marijuana before.
"There's no telling how many times these kids have been subjected to this type of mistreatment," Mr. Ure said.
Marissa Gonzales, a Child Protective Services spokeswoman, said the children were removed from the home on Feb. 23.
"They seem to be doing fine," she said. "According to medical personnel, they probably won't suffer any long-term medical effects. We're looking to see if there are any appropriate family members" to care for the children. "But at this point, we haven't found any."
Ms. Gonzales said the mother told CPS officials that she didn't allow the teens to baby-sit her children.
"That doesn't explain why they were alone with them," she said. "Either way, we don't feel it's a safe place for them to live."
She said CPS officials knew of no other contact with the family.
Mr. Ure said Mr. Polty and Mr. McCoy haven't indicated why they gave the children marijuana.
"I don't think they cared about the consequences to the children," Mr. Ure said.
Mr. Ure said he's just relieved that Fort Worth police were quick to act.
"Can you imagine if we hadn't have caught them?" Mr. Ure said. "This would have gone on until they were stopped and by that time, irreversible damage would have been done to these children."
does anyone know where to find this video?
