A woman who police said has a heroin addiction was charged Thursday with assault after a Wilkes-Barre police officer was stabbed with a used syringe, police said.

Kristen Dudzik, 32, of 542 N. Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre, was arrested the same day she appeared before Magisterial District Judge Martin Kane to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia. She was arrested Oct. 7 with a hypodermic needle, several empty heroin packets and a spoon, court records show.

According to the affidavit:

Police responded to Building 312 at the Sherman Hills Apartment Complex on Oct. 22 for a possible overdose. The complainant led police into a hallway of the building where Dudzik was going through her purse. Police said she is a known heroin user and was not a resident of Sherman Hills.

She was lethargic, slurred her words and had pupils the size of pinpoints. Police asked her multiple times to remove her clenched hand from her purse, but she refused. Police told her she was under arrest. An officer struggled with Dudzik to remove her hand from the purse, and the purse hit the officer and the used needle stuck through it, pricking him in the inner thigh.

The officer continued to struggle with Dudzik, pulling her to the floor. Though he was able to place Dudzik in handcuffs, she still clenched her purse to her chest.

Police were able to search her purse and found an uncapped hypodermic needle with what appeared to be blood in it. They also found other needles, empty wax baggies with powdered residue, a spoon and cotton swabs. Dudzik’s purse also contained two marijuana blunts and a pill bottle with 12 white oval tablets stamped 4H2.

Police asked Dudzik whether she had HIV or hepatitis, and she told them she had hepatitis C.

Dudzik was transported to Wilkes-Barre General Hospital for treatment of her overdose and of her infected hand where she was injecting heroin. The officer was also transported to the hospital for treatment of the needle prick.

Dudzik was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, public drunkenness and similar misconduct, trespassing, resisting arrest, reckless endangerment and possession of a small amount of marijuana.

Following her guilty plea to the drug paraphernalia offense Thursday, Dudzik was jailed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility, unable to post $40,000 straight cash bail on her new set of charges. Her preliminary hearing is slated for 10 a.m. Dec. 18 before Kane.

 

jseibel@citizensvoice.com

570-821-2110, @cvseibel