The Pottsville parents who are each facing a criminal charge in connection with the death of their infant child last year appeared in District Court Monday.
Kenneth, 35, and Andrea, 32, Ortega were each charged earlier this year with a misdemeanor count of reckless endangerment after police say their infant had drugs in its system at the time of death.
On Monday, appearing at District Court before Magistrate Judge James Reiley, the couple – represented by Wynnewood attorney Paul Mansfield – waived the charges against them to Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas. They each remain free on $25,000 bail.
The charges against them stem from the Oct. 15 death of the couple’s five-month-old child. Pottsville police responded to the family’s W. Market St. home that morning for a report of an infant in cardiac arrest. The child was transported to Lehigh Valley Hospital-South, where life-saving measures were unsuccessful.
According to police, the couple told them the infant had been fussy due to teething and slept in bed with them the previous night. Kenneth Ortega reported finding the baby unresponsive the following morning.
An autopsy conducted by the Dauphin County Coroner determined the child’s cause of death was traumatic asphyxia complicated by cocaine toxicity. Police noted the examination also revealed the infant had suffered broken ribs and that a blood screening showed the presence of cocaine, naloxone, benzoylecgonine, and methyl ester.
During a follow-up interview with police in December, both parents denied using or administering the drugs and said they did not know how the substances entered the child’s system. Pottsville Police Chief John Morrow confirmed to The Canary when charges were filed that investigators did not find illegal drugs during a search of the home.
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