Salisbury couple arrested on drug, neglect charges

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, June 19, 2013

SALISBURY — A Salisbury couple was arrested Sunday after authorities say they used methamphetamine while their 13-month-old child was in the home.
Cassie Marie Klimas, 23, and Kenneth Scott Hayes, 31, both of the same address on Eastbrook Circle, were charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and contributing to the neglect of a minor.
On Sunday morning, the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office received a call about a suspicious person on Eastbrook Circle, located off Dunns Mountain Road. The caller said Klimas and Hayes had been acting strangely.
According to the Sheriff’s Office report, the couple called neighbors and said people in their house, their car and the nearby woods were trying to hurt them. A neighbor looked in the house and didn’t see anyone.
Klimas later knocked on the front door of a nearby home and said she was scared that her and Hayes’ son was in danger. The report said Klimas walked back to her own house and left the child in a carseat in her vehicle, which was parked in the neighbor’s driveway.
The neighbor then called the Sheriff’s Office, who sent deputies to the home of Klimas and Hayes.
The couple again said there were other people in the house who wouldn’t leave, but officers checked the home and found no one.
Klimas first said their son was in the crib asleep, then agreed with a deputy that she had actually taken him to the neighbor’s house.
Deputies notified the Department of Social Services, and they agreed that the child should be placed with his grandmother — Hayes’ mother.
One of the officers then saw Hayes remove a piece of foil from a kitchen utensil drawer and take out a brown, rock-like substance. A field test kit confirmed it to be methamphetamine.
According to the report, deputies also found a glass smoking pipe in the home.
Klimas and Hayes were both arrested, given a $5,000 bond and taken to the Rowan County Detention Center.
Hayes’ arrest was first reported in Monday’s Salisbury Post.