Mom charged after teen dies of drinking

ASHFORD, Conn., Dec. 23 (UPI) -- A Connecticut woman whose teenage son died after drinking beer and vodka and snorting ground-up morphine tablets faces criminal charges, police said.

State Police investigated the death of Brandon Specyalski, 15, and concluded that his mother bore some responsibility for his death, The Hartford Courant reported Tuesday. Heather Specyalski, 38, of Ashford, Conn., was charged Friday with three counts of risk of injury to a minor.

The investigation concluded that Brandon and two friends were drinking beer that his mother had purchased for him on the night he died, Aug. 24, an arrest warrant affidavit found. She was sleeping while the three teenagers drank and while Brandon stole morphine from her purse and ground it up.

One friend who was still at the house when his mother found Brandon unconscious said that she told him to dump the beer in the woods before she called 911.

Brian Specyalski, the teen's father, said that he had warned his ex-wife about Brandon's drinking and drug problems and advised her to keep her medications locked up.

Specyalski was acquitted of criminal charges after her boyfriend, Neil Esposito, was killed in a car crash that left her seriously hurt. Investigators said that she had been driving, although they initially thought Esposito was at the wheel.