APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A judge will decide if statements given by a Freedom woman charged in connection with the overdose death of her 2-year-old daughter will be allowed at trial.
Brooke Seal, 29, is charged with neglecting a child-consequence is death for the January death of Rosalie Garcia. Seal also faces two counts for allegedly smuggling drugs in the county jail.
The defense filed a motion to have Seal’s statements disallowed at trial, arguing Tuesday she was, in effect, in custody at the time. Prosecutors contended the statements were voluntary. Judge Carrie Schneider is expected to issue written decision within a week.
Also Tuesday, the Dec. 2 trial date was postponed. A status conference will be held Nov. 25 to discuss the next steps for the case.
In January, the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office responded to a residence on Liberty Lane in the town of Freedom for a report of a child who was not breathing. First responders rendered aid to Garcia, 2, before transporting her to a hospital, but she was pronounced dead.
Seal was arrested after toxicology reports determined Garcia died from exposure to fentanyl. It is unknown how the child accessed or ingested the drugs.
“It was an amount that would be significant enough to kill an adult human,” Outagamie County District Attorney Melinda Tempelis said at a previous court hearing.
According to a criminal complaint, Seal allegedly allowed a drug dealer, Faheem Jones, to temporarily stay at her Freedom apartment.
The complaint describes Seal’s offense as “through her failure to take action, for reasons other than poverty, did negligently fail to provide protection from exposure to the distribution or manufacture of controlled substances… so as to seriously endanger the physical, mental, or emotional health of the child, and the child suffered death as a consequence.”
Jones was charged with five counts, including fentanyl possession, as part of the investigation, but he has not been charged in direct connection with Garcia’s death. He returns to court Jan. 22 for a pre-trial conference.
Jones told police he was at the building to do laundry. In the laundry room, police found a backpack with a stolen gun, ammunition, and a plastic bag with 1,414 pills which tested positive for fentanyl.
According to the complaint: “Based on the evidence located at the scene it is clear that the defendant exposed the child to Fentanyl in her bedroom and in other places in her apartment. A GooStick brand metal tray, along with three pieces of burnt foil, and dark colored plastic pen tube, which is melted on the end and contains a dark residue was located on a small stand to the left of the defendant’s bed, where the child was sleeping. This item is consistent with the type of item commonly used to smoke, or freebase, a narcotic drug. A dark colored plastic pen tube, which is melted on the end and contains a dark residue was located in a wooden bowl next to the kitchen sink. This item is consistent with the type of item commonly used to smoke, or freebase, a narcotic drug.”
Seal’s phone also contained messages showing she was trying to buy fentanyl from Jones less than 10 hours before Garcia died, according to the complaint.
