ROY, Utah (ABC4 News) – A woman is in Weber County Jail after she admitted to smoking methamphetamine in front of her three children.
Jennifer Ben, 30, was arrested Wednesday after a lengthy investigation spanning over several months.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Ben knowingly allowed her three young children to be exposed to the controlled substance and paraphernalia within a motel room at the Royal Inn on 5223 South 1900 West. The alleged incident happened during the end of July.
“It upsets me that someone would do that to their own children,” Kaytlin Clark, a mother, said.
Neighbors who live at the Royal Inn are disappointed.
“It just makes you angry,” Jason Scott, a father, said. “Why would you even do that in front of your kids? It’s just wrong, bad parenting.”
Ben admitted to smoke methamphetamine in front of her children, ages 6, 10 and 13, about 15 times. One of her children tested positive for the drug during a hair test.
“My boys are my world,” Winter Scott said. “I don’t allow anything like that around my boys. I don’t think anyone should.”
The documents say another child reported seeing small plastic bags of crystal like substances and a used pipe in their mother’s purse.
Neighbors feel for the children who are in the state’s care, while their mother is in jail.
“I hope they end up with somebody who cares more and thinks about them before themselves,” Scott added.
