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Parents sue daughter’s boyfriend for allegedly enabling her heroin abuse

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PUEBLO, Colo. - A southern Colorado mother has filed a civil suit against the man she says got her daughter addicted to heroin.

The lawsuit lists several instances where Kyle Monson, 29-year-old Carla Pena's boyfriend, ignored Pena's cry for medical attention.

Pena's mom, Gail Sistrunk, says she filed the suit for a number of reasons, but the main one has nothing to do with money. Sistrunk said she filed the suit to save her daughter's life.

There are 25 claims in the suit that list why she says Monson "enabled and nurtured" her daughter's heroin addiction.

“I have a duty to her. Regardless of her age, I have a duty to her - to protect her from harm, whether it’s from others, or whether it’s from herself that she can’t even equate right now, that she can’t see. I owe her that," Gail Sistrunk told KDVR.

There are no heroin-related criminal charges listed under Pena or Monson's names. Monson does have harassment charges, but those were dropped.

While Sistrunk says her family's story isn't black and white, she believes Monson played a role in her daughter's health decline and heroin use, specifically over the last few months, when she was in and out of the hospital.

“No, he didn’t make the heroin but did he bring it to her in the hospital? Yes, he did. Did that make her recovery worse? Yes, it did. Did it almost cause her to die? Yes, it did," Sistrunk said.

One of the claims made against Monson in the suit reads, "On or about May 8, 2018, Monson had knowledge of Pena’s condition and her need for open heart surgery. In spite of this, Monson illegally brought heroin to Pena in the hospital."

Another claim says, "When she finally regained consciousness, she confessed to her doctors that Monson had again sneaked heroin into the hospital and had, in fact, injected her the night before her surgery."

“My biggest goal is I have to save my child. She’s an adult, but she’s still my child," Sistrunk said.

Pena is now in jail on unrelated charges. Her mother says she won't post her daughter's bond because jail is probably the safest place right now.