Smallis Faces Trial for Drug Possession, Endangering Children

A woman is slated to go to trial today on charges she used her children to help her sell drugs from her Moon Township home. 

Pamela Smallis, 49, who formerly resided in Moon but now lives in Oakdale, is charged with dozens of counts of drug possession with intent to deliver and endangering the welfare of children, stemming from a series of drug sales monitored by Moon Police in 2011. 

In a criminal complaint, police said Smallis met with police informants to sell them marijuana and narcotics on five occasions in 2011, including twice in Sewickley. They said she frequently brought her children along with her while she made drug sales. 

Smallis arranged for informants to come to her home on December 16, 2011 at the 300 block of Stocker Drive, where one of her minor children sold prescription pills and marijuana to the informant, police allege. 

Smallis was arrested on the drug charges in April 2012. In September, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office charged her with multiple counts of possessing child pornography and lewd conduct with a minor, including 34 counts of sexual abuse of children.  

During the drug investigation, police said Smallis had saved photos and videos to her cell phone depicting children engaged in lewd conduct. 

She is scheduled to appear Feb. 11 for a formal arraignment on the child pornography charges. 

Smallis is the former owner of the Children's Palace Daycare in Monaca, which is now under new ownership, and the defunct Little Folks Daycare in North Fayette, which was shut down in 2010 after state inspectors found it in violation of numerous safety regulations for children. 

Investigators from the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare said the facility posed "a serious danger" to the children in its care. Smallis was charged with possessing child pornography two years to the month after her daycare was shut down by state inspectors. 

No children who attended either daycare facility is involved with the investigation. 

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