LOCKPORT -- At the tender age of 3 weeks old, Harley Richardel had a brush with death this weekend after authorities say his mother breast-fed him after smoking crack cocaine.

Harley Richardel

The infant’s mother, Felicia Tharp, told police she used drugs as recently as Friday, two days before she found him unresponsive Sunday, according to police.

Acadian Ambulance took the baby to St. Anne Hospital in Mathews, where his heart stopped twice, Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesman Larry Weidel said.

A urinalysis performed the same day found cocaine in the baby’s system, Weidel said. The child is now recovering at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, family members said. They added that if the Department of Social Services allowed, the infant would live with Tharp’s parents in Bayou L’Ourse once he is released.

Annette Blanchard, who lives across the street from the house occupied by Tharp and the baby’s father, Matthew Richardel, recalled a frantic scene Sunday, as Tharp ran, with her baby in her arms, behind Blanchard’s house to use her water faucet.

"She was yelling that her baby wasn’t breathing," Blanchard said. "She had the water faucet open and was pouring water on the baby. She kept yelling, ëHe isn’t breathing.’ Matt told her to calm down."

Tharp, 31, of 621 Ethel St., Lockport, and Richardel, 32, same address, were charged Sunday with possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia and illegal use of controlled dangerous substances in the presence of a minor. Tharp, known by friends and family as Nikki, told authorities she and her boyfriend had done drugs in front of the baby, Weidel said, noting that this type of case is extremely rare.

"We had a search warrant to obtain her blood, which was kind of unusual," the spokesman said. Weidel added the state took away Tharp’s custody of her two children from her previous marriage.

The baby’s mother also was charged with negligent injury. She posted a $40,000 bond Monday and has been released from the Lafourche Parish jail. Her boyfriend remained in jail this morning, in lieu of a $35,000 bond.

The couple’s family and neighbors said they were shocked about Harley’s brush with death but not necessarily surprised about how it came about. They said Richardel and Tharp have battled addiction.

In fact, Tharp tested positive for cocaine when the child was born, Weidel said. The Louisiana Department of Social Services’ Office of Community Services worked with Thibodaux Regional Medical Center to determine the best course of action, ultimately deciding the infant should be taken home.

"We believed that family to be in active substance-abuse treatment," said Cleo Allen, press secretary for the Department of Social Services. "Therefore, in the interest of maintaining the family unit, the mother was allowed to take the child home with the agreement of ongoing Louisiana DSS services and monitoring."

The infant’s grandfather, Claude Richardel, said if he had known Tharp had cocaine in her system, he would have asked the couple to consider giving the baby to Tharp’s parents in Bayou L’Ourse.

The elder Richardel said his son planned to move with his girlfriend and son to her hometown next month.

Richardel’s wife, who declined to give her first name, called Sunday’s events a "hard blow for our family" and said she was torn up. As she spoke, television crews shot footage for their broadcasts outside her son’s red house.

"What is the point of all this?" she asked several times. Sometimes she directed the question at the television crews and others she directed it at the Sheriff’s Office for the news release it circulated about her son.

Matthew Richardel’s mother described her son as "very bright, very well liked, a very good worker, but he has an addiction." Earlier this spring, he attended St. Christopher’s rehab program in Baton Rouge but left after one month. His mother said he left because Tharp wanted him home and he needed to make money to pay child support for children from a previous marriage.

"He thought he could come home and follow the program," his mother said. "But he slid back. Two addicts can’t live together and think they can end the problem."

Richardel’s parents said they would like to see their son spend time in a rehabilitation program rather than jail.

In a fifth-floor room at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, Diane Montet, a retired office worker, spoke of the grandson she nearly lost and her accused daughter, expressing love for both.

"He is a beautiful gift from God," she said of Harley, whom she described as doing well medically. He is hazel-eyed, with a reddish thatch of hair and eyelashes so fair as to be nearly invisible, Diane Montet said, likening the child to an angel. "This is a tragedy, that is exactly what it is, a tragedy."

Tharp dreamed of a bright future while growing up in the Assumption Parish community of Bayou L’Ourse, 10 to 15 miles from Labadieville. Straight-A grades in elementary school and high school led to a promise of college, which relatives said fell to the wayside after marriage.

But even now -- after the birth of a third child and during an ongoing struggle with substance abuse -- relatives said the woman tried to better herself, and had been taking online accounting courses.

"She is not this horrible monster," Diane Montet said. Speaking of her daughter and Richardel, the grandmother said she was trying to avoid judging.

She is certain, however, that injury to the baby was never intended.

"They both made some very horrific choices, and they will have to live with the consequences. She is a mother that knows that she may have injured her child and she can’t be with him. She is a loving, caring and wonderful mother and daughter," Montet said.

Matthew Richardel’s mother said there is still hope.

"He’s got to hit rock bottom," Richardel’s mother said. "This is going to be it. This will be the turning point. Either it will destroy him entirely or he will fight like hell to make a life for himself."