Kansas City Mother Pressures Minors to Drink Alcohol

Karen Downs is a woman from North Kansas City who was arrested and charged with child endangerment after she provided and forced six young girls to drink alcohol.

The incident occurred in late February.  Police officials were completing a standard response to a noise complaint, when they discovered six young girls--aged thirteen to fourteen--heavily intoxicated.  Where did they get the alcohol from?  Karen Downs and Kelsee Guest.  Downs is a mother to one of the girls and it appeared that she was throwing a stereotypical pre-teen slumber party, the only difference being that this mother provided alcohol to her daughter and her friends.  Not only did she provide the alcohol, but she provided the dares.  Some of the girls would later report that Downs was stringing them along and putting pressure on them to drink.  Allegedly, one of Downs' dares was to chug an entire glass of vodka, and whoever could do it the fastest would win $10 from her.

Why would a mother provide alcohol to her daughter and her friends, nonetheless challenge them into drinking amounts of alcohol that would be dangerous to a healthy adult?

At this time, the motivations Downs had are unclear, and similarly, we have not heard much from the adult accomplice, Kelsee Guest.  Downs will be sentenced on July 8th, and Guest is to be tried on October 25th of this year.  To learn more about what police discovered, click here.

The attorneys and staff at Roswold Law Group urge you to talk to your child about this incident.  Some parents could view this as an incident that should have been handled by the girls.  But young adults are easily persuaded.  These adults should have acted responsibly.  If you feel that a loved one of yours has suffered long-term effects from a situation like this one, we urge you to give our law offices a call.  We can help you.