Pardalis & Nohavicka Criminal Law Update: Mother "Didn't Know" Defense Fails Where Drugs All Over Apartment

Mother of 3 children and a niece, who also lived with her, was convicted of Unlawfully Dealing with a Child in the First Degree: that is when a person knowingly permits a child less than 18 to be in a place where drug activity is going on. When the police entered her home, the mother was standing in her pajamas in the doorway of a bedroom where the officers found, in plain view, 30 bundled glassine envelopes of  heroin; 26 glassine envelopes with heroin residue; and numerous items of drug paraphernalia, including a scale. The father, also convicted, had stated that the narcotics belonged to him. Mother claimed that she had been unaware of the presence of the narcotics and drug paraphernalia and should not have been convicted of Unlawfully Dealing with a Child. But, the court determined that the People were only required to establish that she knowingly permitted children to remain on premises where she had every reason to know that this illegal drug activity was taking place.

Here is the case: People v Diaz
http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2015/2015_01302.htm