Mother charged with child abuse after drugs were allegedly found in diaper bag

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

HAWTHORNE, Fla. – Rachael Marie Faye Clifford, 30, was arrested yesterday and charged with two counts of child abuse, two counts of possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia after deputies reportedly found drugs in her diaper bag.

An Alachua County Sheriff’s (ASO) Deputy pulled Clifford over on Hawthorne Road yesterday morning for a window tint violation and issued a written warning; two children under the age of 4 were reportedly unrestrained in the back seat of the vehicle. The deputy reported that when he asked Clifford to get out of the vehicle, she picked up a diaper bag from the seat next to her and tried to bring it with her; he wrote that he had to tell her multiple times to put it back in the vehicle, but she finally put it in the back seat, in front of one of the children.

An ASO K-9 alerted to narcotics in the vehicle, and a search of the diaper bag reportedly produced 5.5 grams of a substance that tested positive for methamphetamine, about 1.5 grams of marijuana laced with MDPV (molly), and a charred glass pipe, along with diapers, children’s clothing, and other baby items.

Post Miranda, Clifford reportedly said she uses methamphetamine, but she didn’t know that the marijuana contained molly, and she does not smoke in front of her children.

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Clifford was charged with child abuse without serious bodily harm for keeping narcotics in a bag with her children’s diapers and clothing, two counts of possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Clifford served two concurrent state prison sentences between 2015 and 2018 for burglary and grand theft charges out of Gilchrist and Levy Counties. Locally, adjudication of guilt was withheld on a 2013 charge of drug possession, and she was fined after pleading to a charge of resisting arrest without violence in 2015 when ASO deputies arrested her for violation of her Levy County probation; she has not paid the fine. She was cited for driving without a valid license in September 2022 in Alachua County, and that charge was just dropped on Wednesday, March 29.

Bail information is unavailable on weekends.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.