Fort Myers father accused of providing his children with acid, narcotics
By Carson Zorn & Edward Franco
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FORT MYERS, Florida (WBBH) — A Fort Myers father was arrested on Wednesday after he was accused of giving his child acid.
According to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a call at around 4:45 a.m. of a disoriented 13-year-old boy found wearing only a T-shirt and underwear lying in a Fort Myers grocery store parking lot near Fiddlesticks Boulevard and Daniels Parkway.
The child was transported to Golisano Children’s Hospital, where they told deputies their father had given them acid.
Deputies began to investigate and spoke to other children who told deputies their father would pressure them into using narcotics and would provide them with drugs, LCSO said.
According to the arrest report, Rivenburg’s other children informed investigators that he advised them to try drugs with him because he “knows what he was doing.”
“I’m just appalled. I just can’t believe that a parent would be that uncaring,” Kimberly Hunnel said.
Deputies located the father, Jeffrey Rivenburgh, 38, at the La Quinta Inn on Marketplace Road. According to LCSO, in the hotel room, deputies discovered fentanyl, LSD, cocaine and marijuana.
Mike Hunnel said, “Oh, it’s a terrible thing to hear anything like that. It’s a tragedy.”
According to LCSO, Rivenburgh was intoxicated when arrested and faces charges of two counts of child neglect without causing great bodily harm, trafficking fentanyl, trafficking LSD, possession of cocaine and possession of marijuana.
Deborah Comella, executive director of Drug Free Lee, emphasized the importance of communication between parents and children to prevent drug use, noting that early drug use can severely impact a child’s development.
“In many cases, the part of the brain that’s affected is impulse control. So it’s really important that we draw a firewall between ourselves and drugs and alcohol,” Comella said. “We do that by talking to our kids. We tell them we love them. We tell them what to do in case of an emergency, in case someone offers.”
Deputies say the 13-year-old is expected to recover.
LCSO said Rivenburgh has been booked more than 30 times for a variety of charges, including multiple drug offenses.
Rivenburg was taken to the Lee County Jail.
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