An Atlantic County judge pulled no punches during separate detention hearings for a Somers Point couple accused of employing their eighth-grader in their drug business — and paying him with product.
John Garman and Donna Shiffler, both 39, are accused of selling cannabis products and psilocybin mushrooms out of the Exton Road home they shared with their three children, ages 7 to 14.
But it was the alleged employment of their eldest child with Garmans Goods that sparked Judge Patricia Wild's ire.
An approximate year's worth of texts show that both parents had their 14-year-old son "packaging product, selling directly to customers at the home, preparing drugs for sale and distributing drugs to others within his age bracket in public locations," Chief Assistant Prosecutor Allison Eiselen told the judge.
Most disturbing to the state, she said, was that Shiffler encouraged her son to get high, paying him in THC edible products.
Shiffler shook her head as Eiselen made the allegations.
"I have never seen a case where a parent induced the child to engage in illegal activity and also to engage in the use of an illegal drug as payment for his participation in the illegal activity," Wild said, noting her nearly 15 years on the bench, including four in Family Court.
"What these parents were doing is damaging the brain of that 14-year-old, possibly the 12-year-old and possibly the 7-year-old," she added. "They made their child a victim is what they did in this particular case. It's absolutely gut-wrenching."
She called the couple "brazen" in how the company was run, which included business cards and a public Facebook page that had posts, videos and even "treasure hunts" for free product placed around town.
Imperiale pointed out that those posts were all by Garman, not Shiffler.
More than $119,000 in cash was also seized. Garman's sister started a GoFundMe for the family.
The state consented to Garman's release, forgoing a detention hearing.
Shiffler was charged on a summons.
"Behind closed doors, this defendant was putting his child in a position ... turning his kid into a drug mule, essentially," she said.
When the home was raided, the 14-year-old was at home while his younger siblings were in school, the affidavit said. It also indicated there was product in his bedroom.
The teen told police that he stole the drugs from his parents, and didn't know much about the business operations, Eiselen said.
A grand jury has indicted Garman and Shiffler in the case.
The Division of Child Protection and Permanency is involved, and wrote a letter to the court saying that both parents are in compliance and that they had unsupervised custody of their children because "the division has no immediate concerns with the children's immediate safety," Shiffler's attorney, Andrew Imperiale, read into the record.
Eiselen said she did not believe DCPP knew of the texts and eldest child's alleged involvement when the letter was written. Nor, she added, did members of the public who also wrote support letters to the court.
"The situation behind closed doors is quite different than the situation that was apparent to the public who submitted these letters and it's quite different than at the time the defendant was evaluated for detention back in May," she said.
Both Imperiale and Garman's attorney, Durann Neil, pointed to marijuana being legalized in the state.
This caused the judge to point out that marijuana is legal under serious controls that include background checks and quality inspections.
She also added that "there are allegations they had 'magic mushrooms.' No where in this country that I know of are magic mushrooms legal."
Wild released Shiffler due to her lack of a significant criminal history, but gave her strict conditions, including no contact with Garman.
She is also not to see her children unless she is supervised, and there are to be no phone calls or texts between her and the 14-year-old son.
Garman was held because of his additional drug kingpin charge, which carries a potential life sentence and shifts the burden of detention to the defense.
He did not overcome that burden, Wild said.
Garman's mouth dropped open as the judge ordered him detained.
Shiffler cannot live with her children, who are currently with family, according to information released during the hearings.
She also is to make no social media posts about the case or to make contact with her children.
The couple are due back in court later this month before Judge Donna Taylor, who will be handling the case.
