Masontown residents to stand trial after children found with drugs in system
Two caregivers for three children who were found to have multiple drugs in their system following a welfare check at their Masontown residence last year will stand trial on child endangerment charges.
Oliver Sylvester Forsythe and Melissa Leigh Burnett both appeared before District Judge Ronald Haggerty Jr. during their preliminary hearing Monday afternoon in Fayette County Central Court in connection with their Sept. 14 arrest.
Forsythe, 33, waived the three counts of child endangerment to court while Burnett, 25, went ahead with her preliminary hearing and was ordered by Haggerty to stand trial on the three identical charges against her, according to online court documents.
State police said Fayette County Children and Youth Services discovered one of the children tested positive for cocaine, methamphetamine and amphetamine in February 2022, prompting them to test the other two children. Hair samples showed that the other two children had cocaine and marijuana in their system, police said. All three children were under the age of 6 at the time, police said.
Police said Forsythe and Burnett were the primary caregivers for the children in the Masontown home, although investigators did not release in court documents how they were related. It was not known what circumstances led to the CYS workers to test the first child.
Police did not say in court documents who is now caring for the children or if they suffered any lasting medical problems due to the drugs being in their system. It was not known how the children ingested the drugs.
Neither Forsythe’s lawyer, Kimberly Kovach, nor Burnett’s attorney, Jack Connor, could be reached for comment Monday following the preliminary hearings.
Both Forsythe and Burnett are free on $50,000 unsecured bond as they await their formal arraignment that is tentatively scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Aug. 17 at the Fayette County Courthouse.