2 jailed after police say 4-year-old girl in car during drug purchase, use

A Sutersville couple accused by state police of using heroin with a 4-year-old girl in the car was jailed Monday, according to court papers.

Police said the girl then sat inside a car parked at a Hempfield gas station for more than an hour after one of the suspects passed out and the other went to work.

Heather Megan Grimm, 28, and Jacob John Diperna, 30, both are charged with child endangerment. Diperna also faces a drunken-driving count and Grimm is also charged with drug offenses.

Troopers were called to the Valero Gas Station on Wendel Road at 2 p.m. and learned from Mutual Aid Ambulance workers that Diperna was passed out in the drivers seat of a car from what appeared to be a drug overdose. Diperna and Grimm told authorities that they bought heroin for $70 near Charleroi and used it before Grimm started work at the gas station. Police said Grimm had stamp bags in her pocket, according to court papers.

They were taken to Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital.

Troopers later learned that a 4-year-old girl was with the pair in the car but that a relative of Grimm’s happened to be at the gas station and took her when she saw Diperna passed out and Grimm appearing to be sick inside the convenience store, according to court papers. Diperna told authorities that the girl accompanied them to the drug buy. The child was in the custody of her father, police said.

Video surveillance showed the car pull into the gas station at 12:15 p.m. and Grimm go inside. The relative arrived there about 1:30 p.m., according to court papers.

Diperna and Grimm were being held at the Westmoreland County Prison on $25,000 bail each.

Preliminary hearings are set for Nov. 11. Neither had an attorney listed in online court records.