Redwood City Child Abuse Suspect Pleads No Contest In Court

SAN MATEO, CA -- A 38-year-old Redwood City woman has pleaded no contest to felony child abuse charges after a friend noticed her 5-year-old son had bruising on his wrists and the boy tested positive for amphetamines and benzodiazepine, San Mateo County prosecutors said today.

Erin McSweeney and her co-defendant, Jacob Lee St. Clair, 30, of San Francisco, were living in motels around the county and abusing methamphetamine, and on Aug. 4, 2017, McSweeney dropped her son off at a
friend's home, according to the district attorney's office. The friend called police after noticing the boy had bruising and marks on his wrists that were apparently from zip ties.

Investigators learned the boy got into the drug supply of McSweeney and St. Clair and they "hog-tied" him and held him in a bathtub to cool him off since the methamphetamine made his body very hot, prosecutors
said.

McSweeney gave the boy a Valium to try to calm him down and declined to take him to a hospital after a friend suggested that, prosecutors said. The boy was taken from McSweeney's custody and a test of his blood taken two days later allegedly found amphetamines and benzodiazepine in his system.

McSweeney entered her no contest plea to felony child abuse Monday and was placed on four years of probation and a year in the county jail, with more than a year's worth of credit for time already served, according to the district attorney's office.

She was also ordered to complete a year of parenting classes through the probation department and to enter and complete a residential drug treatment program. Her attorney Kevin Allen was not immediately available to comment on the case.

A trial for St. Clair, who is out of custody on $100,000 bail, is still pending and is set for Oct. 22.

--Bay City News/Image via Shutterstock