Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 13, 1990                   TAG: 9005130118
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: D4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: HARRISBURG, PA.                                LENGTH: Medium

WORRIED PARENTS AWAIT PROOF OF DAY-CARE DRUGS

Now Conz anguishes over what may have happened there.

City inspectors raided the home and said that they found two dozen children cooped in a small, darkened cellar cluttered with dangerous tools and cleaning supplies and a padlock on the only outside exit.

To keep the children quiet, those officials have publicly suggested, the baby sitter slipped a sedative in their punch.

But six weeks after the raid, the parents of most of the children do not know what to believe. Authorities have yet to disclose results of tests taken to learn whether the children were drugged, although the mayor of Harrisburg still maintains his "belief" that they were.

The baby sitter and her assistant flatly deny giving drugs to the children.

"It's ridiculous. No one will talk to us," Conz said last week. She and her husband are frustrated that they have been unable to get information. "We've been the last to know through this whole process."

At the center of this storm is Jody Ann Carson, 40, a popular baby sitter who took in children at her neat, three-story brick row house two blocks from the Susquehanna River. When authorities became suspicious that she had more than the six children permitted in unlicensed day-care centers, they raided her home April 3.

They became more suspicious when they found in the 10 a.m. visit the darkened, 20-by-25-foot cellar where there were 24 children who were drowsy, lethargic and fell back asleep when aroused, according to Randy A. King, a spokesman for the Harrisburg city government.

"It was not normal behavior for 3- and 4-year olds," King said. "Ordinarily, when you have this kind of ruckus, those kids would be raising a commotion."

Those suspicions were splashed across the local news when Mayor Stephen Reed denounced the "dungeon-like" conditions and said, "There are preliminary indications of possible use of tranquilizers or sedatives."

The mayor, who once trained emergency medical technicians for the local volunteer River Rescue squad, made the statement as "his professional assessment," King said. "He has been on more than 10,000 calls and has personally saved 13 lives," the spokesman added.

But when authorities repeatedly postponed announcement of drug test results, the attorney for Carson and Carson's assistant charged that "the mayor spoke too quickly, and has seriously harmed these women." The attorney Alan Welch, added, "I think he got involved in it for the publicity."

Last week, the county district attorney, Richard A. Lewis, suggested the mayor should stop talking about the case. "The only place to make any speculation on the evidence is the courtroom," Lewis said. A preliminary hearing is set for Wednesday.

Eight of the 24 children found at the home provided urine specimens, but the specimens had to be sent to two different labs because of the sophistication of the tests, said a spokesman for the Polyclinic Hospital. Food and red punch seized at the home was sent to the FBI, but those results have not returned, either, King said.

Carson, 40, and a helper, Guila E. Knauff, 39, have been charged with endangering the welfare of children, criminal conspiracy, and 24 city fire, safety and zoning code violations. Both are free on bail.

The women provided their day-care service in an integrated, working-class neighborhood of Harrisburg that has many children and parents who need good day care at a low price. Carson, who lived there with her husband and three children, seemed to offer both, according to interviews with parents.

"I told her, `Jody, I can't afford to pay you much,' " recalls Conz of her child-care arrangements when she took a job in February as a switchboard operator. "She said, `I'm not in it for the money.' " Carson charged her $35 a week to care for her 2-year-old and 4-year-old daughters during the day, and her 8-year-old son on some afternoons after school.

Most day-care centers in Harrisburg charge between $55 and $110 a week per child, according to Shiela Walker, co-owner of the Ebony and Ivory Day Care Center nearby.

Conz said that Carson told her she cared for "15 to 16" children all day, and more after school, with the assistance of Knauff, who apparently boarded at the Carson home. "I went through her home, and she said this is where the children were going to be. It was gorgeous . . . immaculate."