Farmer may have given woman cow hormone
August 16, 2007
GALENA, Md. --A dairy farmer hoping to induce a woman he impregnated to miscarry gave her a soda containing a cattle hormone sometimes used to force abortions in cows, police said.
William Stanley Sutton III, 25, added ProstaMate last week to a soda he gave to 21-year-old Lauren Ashley Tucker, according to documents charging Sutton with reckless endangerment, assault and poisoning.
Tucker felt sick to her stomach and vomited after drinking the 20-ounce soda that "tasted nasty and burnt her throat," according to court records. She went to the hospital Aug. 9, and the hospital reported a possible poisoning to police.
Tucker was treated and released and is now 15 weeks pregnant.
ProstaMate is a hormone given to cows in the breeding process to bring all cows in heat at the same time. It can also be used to stimulate an early term abortion in a heifer that gets pregnant too young or a cow that mates with an undesired bull.
Tucker told authorities Sutton tried to get her to drink more of the soda, "telling her that soda helps an upset stomach," according to charging documents. She told police Sutton is the father of the fetus and that he wanted her to have an abortion, the records state.
Sutton told police he bought some ProstaMate from a veterinarian and put it in Tucker's soda while she was visiting him, according to the documents.
According to police, Sutton said he didn't mean to harm Tucker, just to cause her to miscarry.
"It's an unthinkable type of situation," Kent County sheriff's Sgt. Glenn M. Owens said.
Sutton was charged Monday. A judge released him on $50,000 bond and ordered him not to have contact with Tucker.
Sutton's lawyer, Mitch Mowell, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment