BANGOR, Maine — A Corinna man made his second court appearance at the Bangor District Court on Wednesday.
Zachary Borg, 26, is on trial for the near-fatal overdose of his baby back in June of 2021.
According to police, Borg’s 11-month-old daughter was in cardiac arrest when first responders arrived at the home in Corinna.
Emergency personnel brought the child to Northern Light Sebasticook Valley Hospital in Pittsfield, where she was successfully resuscitated and stabilized. The child was then flown by LifeFlight to Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.
Borg and the mother of the child, 22-year-old Taezja DiPietro, are charged with aggravated furnishing drugs to a minor, reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, endangering the welfare of a child, and possession of Class W drugs.
Defense Attorney Harris Mattson called the charges into question, arguing Borg did not have the intent to harm his daughter. The defense states that when the 11-month-old began seizing and going into cardiac arrest, she was laying on her mother's chest, and may have ingested the fentanyl from residue on DiPietro's shirt.
During the second day of the trial, first responders and detectives provided witness testimony. Sgt. John Trask, a detective with the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office, gave testimony on an interview he conducted with Borg on the day of the overdose.
Prosecutors played a recording of that interview during the trial. Trask could be heard asking Borg about the night before the near-fatal overdose. Borg said he let “a stranger” into his home to do drugs with, while DiPietro and their kids were away from the home.
The recording continues with Borg explaining the stranger invited two more individuals into the home. While the strangers were with Borg, one of them lost a bag of “drugs."
The prosecution argued the "lost drugs" may have been the cause of the child's overdose.
“I think it’s fair to assume that any fentanyl powder located anywhere other than a storage container or in the user’s body was located in that other place as a result of an accident. For one thing, people don’t typically just waste illegal expensive drugs,” Mattson argued.
“It just defies logic to think that Mr. Borg would admittedly bring in fentanyl the night before, lose some, that there would be visible fentanyl in a child’s pack-and-play, and a child would overdose on fentanyl, and we are somehow supposed to draw from that, that it came from Taezja’s shirt? It just does not make sense” Chelsea Lynds, the Penobscot County Assistant District Attorney, responded.
The recording of the interview continues with Trask pleading with Borg and DiPietro to cooperate with the investigation so they can be reunited with their kids once they get their lives together. DHHS had taken the couples’ children into custody while they were with their baby at the hospital.
Borg told Trask he had an addiction to Xanax and told the detective more would be found in the home but did not identify any other drugs. Trask brought up “white powder” found in the home, but Borg and DiPietro told him it was baby formula.
The judge has set bail for Borg at $10,000 cash and $5,000 cash for Taezja DiPietro. The Maine Department of Human Services continues to have custody of their children.
Closing statements for the trial are expected early Thursday morning.