Rachelle Braaten giving toddler pot, Anonymous source gave police cell phone video of Rachelle Braaten giving son bong. A Washington mother has been arrested and her 22-month-old child put into care after shocking footage of her feeding the boy marijuana from a bong was anonymously handed into police.
The cell phone footage shows the young boy taking a hit from the top of the device while his 24-year-old mother, Rachelle Braaten laughs uproariously with a group of adults.
Arrested on Friday at home in Centralia along with the boys 25-year-old father Tyler J. Lee, police recovered 40 marijuana plants inside the property in addition to illegal firearms.
The boy's name has not been released.
When the police arrived at her door, Braaten is alleged to have said, 'I guess it was a joke and stupid mistake that wasn't really funny.'
Claiming that her son displayed no ill-effects from the cannabis hit, Braaten said that she felt 'horrible' for what she did and said that it happened five-months ago.
'Because he is two and he shouldn't have known about that,' said Braaten. 'He shouldn't have that in his body.'
In the disturbing video the young child rears back and coughs after inhaling the drugs as people are heard to laugh in the room.
'At this point, the other people in the room begin laughing louder and the child looks at the camera taken aback, and the video ends,' prosecutors wrote in court documents.
Braaten appeared before a Lewis County Superior Court judge in Chehalis on Monday where prosecutors requested she be held for 72 hours - but Braaten was released yesterday on $20,000 bail according to the Lewis County Sirens.
Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke told the judge there is probable cause for the offense of delivery of a controlled substance by a person over 18 to a person under 18.
O’Rourke’s court documents outline how police in Centralia received the anonymous video with information regarding the parents and obtained a search warrant for Braaten's home.
Initially denying responsibility, in subsequent police interviews, Braaten allegedly admitted it was her in the video and that she and a number of other people were passing around a bong.
She claimed it happened four or five months ago.
The wayward mother said to police that she was pressured by the group around her to administer the hit and knew she shouldn't be doing it.
Braaten does have history with the police.
In 2011, she was arrested for allegedly assaulting a household member 2:20 a.m. at her home in Centralia. It is not known who the family member was.
The boy's father, Braaten's fiance Tyler Lee, claimed he was a medicinal marijuana user. But he too was arrested, allegedly confessing he also sold the marijuana to a dispensary.
Child protective services took custody of Braaten's boy and put him into care along with her other five-year-old son, while authorities process the accusations against her.
The child's father was released on Monday while the police work out what charges to file against him.
Braaten was booked on one count of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance to a minor and one count of manufacture of marijuana - she is expected to be charged on Tuesday.
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