The Broward mother accused of killing her young son with sleeping pills pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges Monday.
Raisa Bernabe did not attend the hearing, entering her written plea through her lawyer.
Bernabe is also facing charges of delivery of a controlled substance to a minor and knowing sale or transfer of prescription drug to unauthorized person in the September 2009 death of 4-year-old Nicolas Odze.
Bernabe told investigators that she gave her son a Lunesta sleeping pill the night before his death. Toxicology reports concluded that the boy died of a lethal dose of Zopiclone, the key drug found in Lunesta, which is used by adults to cure insomnia.
An assistant in the Coconut Creek city clerk's office, Bernabe and her husband, Alan Odze, a retired New York police officer, live in Coral Springs.
A police search of their home at the time of the boy's death turned up dozens of bottles of prescription drugs, most of which were prescribed to Odze.
Bernabe was arrested in July and is out on $10,000 bail.
