Dad Is Sentenced for Hooking Girl on Speed : Crime: Downey man started feeding the drug when his daughter was 11 so he would have someone to get high with. The judge orders rehabilitation and probation, but no jail time.

The Downey girl was only 11 when she had her first taste of methamphetamines. For nearly three years, her father fed her speed simply because he wanted company when he got high.

When authorities caught up with 37-year-old Ronald Raymond Carr, his wife told them how he would prepare a methamphetamine highball in a small cup and force the girl to drink it. The girl’s mother said Carr sometimes made their daughter take the drugs early in the morning before she went to school.

When mother or daughter protested, he became angry, and pushed or slapped them, Nancy Carr said. But by the time their daughter was 13, “she was pretty well hooked on it. She didn’t really refuse after that,” the mother said. “She looked forward to it.”

On Thursday, Ronald Carr was sentenced to a year in a drug rehabilitation center, five years probation and fined $1,000 for his role in addicting his daughter to drugs.

Carr, 39, sat expressionless in Norwalk Superior Court as Judge Dewey L. Falcone ordered him to check into Hillview Mental Health Center in Lake View Terrace.

Carr, who worked two jobs--as a gardener and custodian--pleaded guilty Sept. 2 to furnishing a controlled substance to a minor. Additional charges of child abuse were dropped in return for the guilty plea.

Nancy Carr, who admitted that she also took methamphetamines, was granted immunity from prosecution in return for testimony against her husband.

An anonymous tip led Downey police to the Carr home, authorities said. They seized a mirror with a pink plastic frame and a small plastic cup that Nancy Carr said her husband used to prepare the methamphetamine highball. Although no drugs were confiscated, the girl confirmed to authorities that her father had forced her to take speed.

The first time was on her 11th birthday in 1990, she testified at one court proceeding. Initially, her father gave her the drugs once a week. But by the time she was 13, they were getting high together twice a day, she said.

“I just felt kind of weird,” she said. “Sometimes I’d get sick and throw up and be dizzy. I’d get a headache.”

She said she took the drugs so her father would not get angry.

“Sometimes he’d get mad at me and then I would be afraid and I didn’t want him to be mad at me,” she explained.

Nancy Carr told prosecutors that her husband would grab and taunt his daughter when she refused to take drugs, “telling her she was a good-for-nothing child.”

The mother testified that she objected to the family ritual, saying “it wasn’t a smart thing to do.” But she was afraid of her husband, who “told me he would kill me if I ever left him,” she said.

The maximum sentence for giving drugs to a child is three years in prison. Deputy Dist. Atty. Marilyn Seymour argued strongly for jail time for Carr. “We have a defendant who got his own natural child addicted,” Seymour said.

But the judge noted that Carr, who has been in custody since his arrest March 19, “would face no serious time if I placed him in state prison.” Indeed, with time off for good behavior, he would be eligible for parole almost immediately.

Though Nancy Carr did not appear in court for the sentencing, the judge said she was not without fault. “I place the culpability not only on Mr. Carr but on his wife,” he said. “It’s a terribly dysfunctional family.”

Nancy Carr has custody of their daughter, now 14, and has moved from Downey, authorities said. The girl is enrolled in school and has been referred for counseling.

Ronald Carr’s mother, who asked not to be named, said after the sentencing that her son is sorry he gave drugs to his daughter.

“He would turn back the clock if he could,” she said. “I guess the treatment center is the best thing for him, considering that drugs got him in jail.”

The judge ordered Carr not to see his wife unless they attend counseling sessions. Carr will have limited contact with his daughter and a responsible adult must always be present.

During the short proceeding, Carr pleaded with the judge to allow him to see his family. “I just wanted to tell my daughter I love her,” Carr said.