An Odessa woman was arrested on a child endangerment charge last week after authorities learned she’d taken a 12-year-old relative to four different hospitals over a three-day period insisting they exam her for evidence of sexual assault.
According to an Odessa Police Department report, Angela Nicole Fields, 34, took the child to Medical Center Hospital on July 25 because she feared the girl had been sexually abused by another relative. Fields insisted an exam be conducted by a sexual assault nurse examiner despite the fact the girl had never told anyone she was the victim of abuse.
When hospital personnel declined to perform the test, Fields repeatedly yelled at the child and repeatedly asked her if she’d been abused and the girl said, “No.” When Fields was told the hospital could only do such exams if authorized by the police department, she took the child to Midland Memorial and hospital personnel there also declined to perform the test because the girl had not made an outcry.
According to the report, Fields took the girl to University Medical Center Hospital in Lubbock the next day. The girl told the attending doctor a male relative would sometimes give her drinks and she felt pain in her vaginal area upon waking up. Blood tests showed barbiturates in her system and a SANE exam was performed, but no trauma was found.
Fields became angry upon hearing the results, insisted the test be re-administered and called the SANE incompetent, according to the report.
On July 27, Fields took the child to Dallas for another SANE exam. According to the report, she contacted prosecutors there, said her relative had been raped and the Odessa Police Department was refusing to help her.
Fields was arrested on a child endangerment charge Aug. 18.
According to the report, Fields “intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or with criminal negligence, by act or omission, engaged in conduct that places (the child) in imminent danger of death, bodily injury or physical or mental impairment.”
She was released from the Ector County jail the next day after posting a $3,000 surety bond. The charge is a state jail felony punishable by a prison sentence of six months to two years.
