South Elgin man charged after toddler ingests drugs
A South Elgin man is charged with endangering the life of a child after a toddler found and ingested narcotics that police say were stored in a cupboard next to the boy's coloring books in April.
Steve Foresta, 28, of the 1000 block of South Elgin Boulevard, made his first court appearance Thursday. He was arrested May 8 and has been free on bail since then.
Foresta was also charged with:
• Possession of fewer than 15 grams of a controlled substance, believed to be cocaine;
• Possession of fewer than 15 grams of a drug believed to be Norco, a narcotic prescription painkiller;
• Illegal possession of a hypodermic needle or syringe;
• Possession of six glass cannabis pipes;
• Obstruction of justice. He is accused of locking himself in a bathroom and flushing drugs down a toilet.
Paramedics were called to the boy's home shortly after midnight April 10, according to South Elgin police, because the boy was turning blue and having a hard time breathing.
Not knowing for sure what the drug was, paramedics administered naloxone, a drug that fights narcotic overdose.
He was treated at Presence St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin and then the pediatric intensive care unit at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services took custody, and the child was to be supervised by his maternal or paternal grandparents, according to police.