FLOYD COUNTY, GEORGIA: Two Georgian women were sent to prison on Tuesday, August 8, after they allegedly forced a seven-year-old girl, with an unspecified medical condition, to eat and vape cannabis. According to the reports of WSB-TV, citing an arrest report, the victim was “placed under excessive mental and physical stress due to accused[‘s] intentional actions.”
Those actions supposedly included giving THC products, a gummy, and a vape pen to the child. The arrest document did not say how or if the child was related to the defendants, the outlet reported.
Who are Nicole Lucille Rinker and Racquel Price?
Floyd County jail records show that Nicole Lucille Rinker, 35, and Racquel Price, 36, were held on charges of methamphetamine possession, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, first-degree cruelty to children, and reckless conduct.
The charged cruelty to children statute, 16-5-70(B), says that “[a]ny person commits the offense of cruelty to children in the first degree when such person maliciously causes a child under the age of 18 cruel or excessive physical or mental pain.” The first-degree felony charge is punishable upon conviction by “not less than five nor more than 20 years.”
Rinker and Price had past criminal records
Floyd County court records show a number of close cases against both of them which dates several years back. In 2015, Price was convicted of simple assault and obstruction or hindering law enforcement. Her probation was revoked months later after she tested positive for methamphetamines, records show.
Price pleaded guilty in a separate family violence battery case in March 2016. The victim was apparently a man with whom she lived. Third-degree cruelty to children charges were not prosecuted. Rinker was sentenced for criminal trespass and disorderly conduct in November 2014.
Court documents say that she was taken back into custody months later for violating her probation by testing positive for amphetamines and methamphetamines. Rinker was ordered released from custody in May 2015. In August 2015, Rinker again violated her probation because she “failed to avoid injurious and vicious habits,” testing positive again for methamphetamine.
In March of the following year, a motion by Rinker to be released from custody was denied. She was pregnant at the time, court records show.
“After discussion with counsel, the court hereby finds it was the intent for the baby to be born while the mother is in custody and DFACS [The Division of Family and Children Services] will assume custody to protect the child. Said motion is hereby denied,” the court ruled.
