KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Northland mother is now facing child endangerment charges, after prosecutors said she provided liquor to a teenager who nearly died of alcohol poisoning.
Melissa Bardwell, 34, is now charged with child endangerment for allegedly furnishing alcohol and tobacco to a minor.
Authorities said the victim is a 15-year-old girl who was barely breathing and unconscious when Bardwell left her on the side of N. Oakley Avenue, just a few blocks from where the girl was supposed to spend the night with a friend.
“She was not responsive at all,” said Danny Schroeder, who called 911. “She was just laying there and we didn`t know what was going on.”
Schroeder said he saw a car full of people pull up outside his house on the night of May 25 and dump the teenager off.
The girl’s mother, a registered nurse, soon showed up and noticed her daughter’s breathing was “extremely shallow,” according to court documents.
“This young girl is laying down there,” Schroeder said, “and some lady comes up and says, ‘It`s my daughter! It`s my daughter, and the ambulance is on its way here!’”
The victim’s mother declined to comment about the situation on Wednesday. However, doctors said the teen nearly died of alcohol poisoning, as she had a blood alcohol content of .225.
“It makes me sick to my stomach,” said Emily Taylor, who saw EMS workers load the victim onto a stretcher and put her in the back of the ambulance. “It`s sad. It`s scary.”
Prosecutors said Bardwell allowed her 14-year-old daughter, Angel Harmon, to have friends over at their house on NE 58th Street– then went to a CVS and bought them at least two big bottles of liquor.
“That girl got drunk by herself,” Angel told FOX 4 on Wednesday. “My mom didn`t get her drunk.”
Angel denied her mom bought booze for anyone underage.
“They came over here drunk, first of all,” she said of the victim and another friend. “And then she freaking drank a little bit too much. I don’t know.”
Instead, Angel claimed her friend found her mom’s stash of liquor in her bedroom and got so drunk, she got sick and passed out.
“When she first started getting drunk, I walked out and I was like, ‘Let’s go take a walk,’” Angel recalled.
“Then she fell a bunch, came here, sat here, she threw up more… I dressed her, fed her, tried to, at least. Then she got in the car, threw up again.”
Angel claimed she didn’t realize how serious her friend’s condition was, and thought she could just sleep it off once they got her back to another friend’s house.
“That is crazy, but that’s not my fault,” Angel said of later hearing the victim nearly died. “I mean, I love the girl. She’s cool and all, but I just can’t do that. She [brought] all that into my house.”
Bardwell’s mother, Senett Eckhart, told FOX 4 she was also there that night. She said while she didn’t see the teens drinking, she thinks her daughter is an alcoholic.
“She buys liquor every day,” Eckhart said of Bardwell. “So if she gets drunk and wants to party with the teenagers, you know, I have no control over a 34-year-old person.”
As for the criminal charges her daughter is now facing, Eckhart said, “They’re awful. But I can’t do [anything] about it. She’s got to face her own demons, you know?”
Eckhart said she hopes Bardwell will finally get the help that she needs in jail, and she hopes the young victim learns a valuable lesson about the dangers of drinking.
“I hope the little girl makes it through okay and forgives Melissa,” she said, “and for her to get her own life straight for her drinking. You know, everybody has to take responsibility for their own ignorance.”
Bardwell remained in jail Wednesday night on a $50,000 bond.
