http://www.whas11.com/home/Indiana-man-charged-with-DUI-of-drugs-with-3-year-old-son-in-lap-174690161.html Police say man was under the influence while driving with son on lap by Bryan Baker WHAS11.com Posted on October 17, 2012 at 11:16 PM
Updated today at 2:24 PM (WHAS11) -- Louisville Metro Police watched James Nick Garrard drive erratically from a McDonald's in West Louisville down Broadway for about a half of a mile Monday. When they pulled him over police say they found drug track marks and a belt around his arm. They found Nick's 3-year-old son, Cash, asleep in his lap.
Cash's mother was also in the car, but was not arrested.
Richard Garrard, Nick's father, has lost track of Cash's mother and Nick since he kicked them out of his house in 2011.
"The needles, I found one in the couch, found one on my floor in my bedroom, I found countless saucers that was here and there and yonder, my spoons were being bent, I found straws everywhere," Richard Garrard said.
Police noticed similar evidence in Garrard's truck on the night of the arrest -- several baggies of powder and a straw caked with residue. While searching the car a drug-sniffing police dog named Willie ate some of the drugs. The dog was taken to an animal shelter but has recovered. On the arrest slip -- Nick told police he took four of the painkillers called percocet in the 12 hours before his arrest.
"My grandson that they had eight months ago, addicted when he was born, just come off the drip, they've been dripping him with morphine and everything just to bring him off drugs," Richard Garrard said. "He has to [stop doing it], he has to do it here, he can be locked up for 30 years, but if he don't change this, that habit is waiting on him."
Garrard faces six charges, including DUI, assault on a police dog, drug possession, and endangering a minor.