A Kentucky mother smiled in her mugshot, but her arrest was no laughing matter. Morgan Chapman, 23, allegedly left her young children home alone to smoke marijuana. An officer from the Pikeville Police Department responded to a call about a domestic incident at an apartment on Northgate Drive just after 9 p.m. When the door opened, police were shocked by what they saw.
According to court documents obtained by the Appalachian News-Express, two children, ages 2 and 4, opened the door for Pikeville Police Officer Braydn Hunter. Police did a sweep of the apartment and found no adults inside. The children reportedly told police they did not know where their mother was.
Hunter noted in his report that officers knocked on several apartment doors trying to find the mother. A neighbor alleged that Chapman had asked the neighbor to watch her children around 5 p.m. because she wanted to “go smoke” but did not want the kids around.
“‘Go smoke’ is a common street term for smoking marijuana,” Hunter wrote in his report.
When Chapman returned to the apartment later that evening, Hunter noted she allegedly smelled of alcohol and appeared intoxicated with slurred speech and bloodshot eyes.
“Chapman then advised officers that she had only left the children downstairs for a couple minutes while she went to a neighbor’s house,” Hunter wrote.
Police arrested Chapman and took her children to the police department, where authorities contacted child protective services.
Chapman smiled in a booking photo at the Pike County Detention Center, according to Law & Crime. She faces a two-count charge of endangering the welfare of a minor. She bonded out of jail, and it is unclear when she will appear in court next.
Thankfully, Jordan Chapman, the children’s father, posted on Facebook that they are now safe with him.
“When the police showed up, my ex-wife was in a different apartment. My kids didn’t even know where she was. My children are now safe and have been placed solely in my care,” he wrote in his post. “Anybody involved is more than welcome to show up to my house between 9:00am and 2pm Monday through Friday. I’d love to talk things over with each and every one of you pieces of s—. I’m not hard to find.”
