Mother charged with poisoning tot

Ex-nurse accused of injecting her 22-month-old son with human feces

By TERRI SANGINITI / The News Journal

07/15/2005

BEAR -- New Castle County police arrested a former pediatric nurse Thursday night, saying she tried to poison her 22-month-old son by injecting human feces into his bloodstream.

Detectives charged Stephanie McMullen, 29, of the first block of Glennwood Drive in Bear, with felony assault by abuse or neglect for recklessly causing serious physical injury to a child and first-degree reckless endangering.

Authorities said McMullen, a former pediatric oncology nurse at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, is accused of deliberately injecting fecal matter into her son, her only child, causing him to be hospitalized numerous times.

McMullen, who faces a court hearing next Wednesday, is at home after her husband, Brian McMullen, posted $27,000 bail.

Police said the boy's father is not a suspect in the case.

McMullen's attorney Elwood T. Eveland Jr. said county police have "absolutely no evidence of an objective nature" that his client did anything.

He called the arrest "an effort on the part of the state to save a floundering case."

Authorities said the boy was removed from the custody of his parents three months ago when the investigation began. He has been placed in foster care and is in good condition, police said. McMullen is scheduled to appear in Family Court next week to try to regain custody.

"By filing the criminal charges, they've taken the child away," Eveland said.--