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Father takes son, 1, to drug dealer’s home, police say

On the morning of Oct. 28, Neil Patrick Sponsler put his 1-year-old son in his car and drove to his drug dealer’s city home, where he spent the next several hours using cocaine while the drug dealer’s boyfriend watched the toddler in another room, city police alleged in court papers.

When it was time to leave the house at Campbell Street and Memorial Avenue about 1:30 p.m., Sponsler and his son returned to the car, and the father put the child in the back seat, but he did not secure him in a safety seat, Patrolman Gino Caschera said.

As he was attempting to get in the vehicle, the 25-year-old Sponsler suddenly collapsed in the street, prompting calls for police and paramedics to the scene, Caschera said.

While Sponsler, of 377 St. Davids Road, was taken by ambulance to the UPMC Susquehanna Williamsport Regional Medical Center, police took protective custody of the child and soon returned him to his mother.

At the hospital, Sponsler admitted to taking the child to his drug dealer’s home so that he and the dealer could use cocaine together, Caschera said. The father was discharged from the hospital.

Charged with endangering the welfare of a child and public drunkenness, Sponsler was arraigned this week before District Judge Christian Frey and released on $2,500 bail.

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