Batavia, N.Y. --- Bath salts and other synthetic drugs are becoming a growing problem in Batavia and the surrounding community according to law enforcement. One criminal case serves as a recent example of this issue.
Ashley Keene, 24, was arrested and charged with Endangering the Welfare of a Child by Batavia Police. The incident stems from her May 28th dealings with a 14 year-old girl described as Keene’s babysitter in court records. Those same records state that while the girl was watching her children Keene also introduced her to bath salts, showed her how to snort the drugs, and even gave her a soda to drink that had bath salts in it.
"I trusted these people, they wanted my daughter to baby-sit for them and I said okay," the mother of that 14 year-old victim told 13WHAM News. We’re not identifying her or her daughter given the girl’s age.
The victim did tell police that Ashley Keene showed her how to snort the bath salts first but that she didn’t call them bath salts at the time.
"So she goes it is okay it can't hurt me because it's caffeine powder,” the victim’s mother said of her daughter’s story. “It is like the drink and obviously it's not, it's worse."
Court records show that her daughter also told police, "I asked Ashley for a drink. Ashley gave me her drink which was Sprite. I later found out it had the 'amped' mixed in it."
