IN-HOME NURSE ACCUSED OF INTOXICATION WHILE CARING FOR DISABLED CHILD

A Yucca Valley in-home nurse was arrested Wednesday after authorities found she was passed-out drunk and had failed to care for a disabled child. Traci Sparks, 48, a licensed vocational nurse for a nursing service in Riverside County, was the caretaker for a disabled child in the 72200 block of Sun Valley Drive in Twentynine Palms. The child suffers from a medical condition that requires regular cleaning of equipment so the child can breathe. The child’s mother came home about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday and found that her child had trouble breathing and that Sparks was passed out. Sparks was taken to Hi-Desert Medical Center where Deputy Bryan Dominguez determined that she was intoxicated. Detective Alan Pennington located evidence at the child’s home and determined that Sparks had drunk alcohol while caring for the child. Traci Sparks was arrested at the hospital for investigation of willful cruelty to a child, booked into the Morongo Basin Jail, with her bail set at $100,000.