March 7, 2016 - The mother of a child who perished in a house fire on February 17, 2016 has been arrested by the Shelby County Sheriff's Department on a charge of child endangerment relating to a surviving child. The charge stems from indications of drug interaction with the child and are not directly related to the fire.
Following the fire, the sibling of the child who perished, a 4-year-old was taken into custody by the Department of Family and Protective Services.
According to an arrest affidavit, on March 2, 2016 Sheriff's Investigator Chad Brown was advised by Texas Child Protective Services that the 4-year-old male child had been drug tested and the test returned a positive result for methamphetamine.
Investigator Brown was provided with the results which showed the child tested positive for methamphetamine in a 5-panel hair test (4,113 pg/mg).
An arrest warrant on the charge of endangering a child, state jail felony, for Raven Whitteck, 29, of Joaquin was issued by Shelby County Justice of the Peace for Precinct 1 Maxie Eaves. Whitteck was taken into custody on Friday, March 4, 2016. According to Shelby County Jail records, Whitteck bonded out on a $5,000 bond March 5, 2016. The arrest log also indicates there have been three different sets of arrests for endangering a child in the past month for different incidents including Elisha Remedies and Phillipe Falcon on February 29; Rileigh Windham on February 20 and Jarvis Taylor on February 11.
In a press release issued by the Shelby County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Willis Blackwell reports that two arrests have been made by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office in connection with a child being exposed to methamphetamine.
The Sheriff’s Office received information from the Child Protective Services division of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services that a four year-old child under investigation with the department had tested positive for methamphetamine.
The father of the child, Jesse Whitteck Sr. was arrested on March 7, 2016, also being charged with Endangering a Child, State Jail Felony.
As stated in the affidavits for the arrest warrants, both parents tested positive for methamphetamine as well.
Sheriff Blackwell advised that the arrests were not in connection to the tragic house fire that occurred at the Whitteck’s residence on February 17, 2016, an incident that is still under investigation.
