Judge upbraids arrested North Jersey woman for leaving 6-year-old in house with heroin

A judge in Passaic County had some strong words this week for one of two North Haledon residents accused last month of being part of a drug distribution operation.

Qu'Lasia Williams' 6-year-old son was found alone, hungry, dressed only in his underwear and within reach of glassine bags of suspected heroin and fentanyl when police showed up at her apartment to execute a search warrant.

During Williams' April 2 detention hearing, Judge Scott Rumana said it was deeply concerning that the child was left by himself in the apartment with glassine bags of heroin within reach. He said that even if someone had been home with the child, it can be difficult to keep track of a 6-year-old, and had he gotten into the drugs, he could have died.

Williams, 25, was arrested with Demoy Woolley, 23, late last month on several charges including first-degree possession of a controlled dangerous substance with the intent to distribute and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child. Woolley consented to detention, and Williams was released with monitoring.

Passaic County Assistant Prosecutor Evan Mongiardo said the search warrants were executed at the same time as the arrests, and that was when law enforcement found Williams' son alone in the apartment with 12,000 glassine bags of heroin and fentanyl.

Local:Plan for apartments, Starbucks, storage draws sharp criticism in North Haledon

Detective bought food for the boy

Police body cameras showed the son telling police his mother didn't feel like taking him to school that day and he was hungry, Mongiardo said, adding that one of the detectives from the Prosecutor's Office bought food for the boy because there wasn't anything sufficient in the house. The child was eventually released into the custody of his grandmother.

Mongiardo said he had no reason to believe Williams was using any drugs, and no paraphernalia was found in the house.

Williams' attorney Uri Roer pointed to his client's full-time job as a patient care associate at Englewood Health, and Williams told Rumana she was expecting to start nursing school in the fall.

Roer said Williams also had made arrangements to have a friend check on her son and she had informed police her son was home.

Local:Did North Jersey hotel have bedbugs? New lawsuit makes that claim

Rumana said he was comforted by the fact that Williams had told police her son was home, that she didn't just walk out on the child and that she genuinely believed someone was going to be home with him.

"Despite everything else, that was the most upsetting by far to see, to hear about a 6-year-old being left in that position," the judge said.

Rumana told Williams he was not there to make her feel any worse than she likely already did but hoped she would learn never to leave her child like that again.

"You gave birth to this child. I have to believe you love this child," Rumana said at the end of the detention hearing. "You ... seem like a very bright woman, who's going to go on track to becoming a nurse, which means that you've got a good head on your shoulders. You can't ever leave a child in this position, ever."

Williams and Woolley were part of a four-month investigation involving several North Jersey law enforcement agencies. The pair were arrested in Sussex County while attempting to make a drug transaction, Mongiardo said during Williams' detention hearing.

Items seized in the searches executed at 10 locations throughout Bergen, Passaic and Sussex counties included more than $100,000, a handgun with 56 rounds of ammunition, 9.5 ounces of suspected cocaine and 8 pounds of suspected marijuana, in addition to the 12,000 glassine bags of suspected heroin and fentanyl.