Parents Released After Feeding Drugs to Child

A couple that was arrested last August for giving their 12-year-old daughter hallucinogenic mushrooms escaped prison time yesterday when a judge sentenced them to five years' probation. The girl was found walking around in a creek bed a mile from her home in Omaha, NE at 3am, crying and covered in mud. She said that her parents gave her the hallucinogenic 'shrooms for "religious" reasons, and that it wasn't the first time. Cynthia and Christopher Ewerdt's probation conditions include spending the first six months at a halfway house—and another six months in jail, if they don't stick to the terms. Judge Duane Doherty took into account their six months' incarceration prior to sentencing and the fact that the pair got help for their drug addictions through programs in Jail. The Ewerdts—who ran an operation growing mushrooms inside their home—pleaded no contest to child abuse and possession of a controlled substance. The maximum prison sentence they could have received was ten years. If they follow the conditions of their probation, they can regain custody of their daughter, who is now 13 and being looked after in foster care.