‘Sold’ Boy Case Is Further Blow to Detroit : Crime: City’s image suffers with rash of heinous acts. Tale of youth given to crack dealer comes after driver’s suicide and Rosa Parks robbery.

A 15-year-old boy who police said was sold by his mother to a drug dealer to pay off a $1,000 crack cocaine debt was found here early Tuesday and taken into custody.

Authorities struggled to piece together the facts of the bizarre case, the latest in a series of incidents to rock the Motor City in the last year.

It is still unclear whether the youth, Tazar Carter, was traded by his mother, chose to join the drug underworld on his own or was physically and sexually abused.

The teen-ager is being held on a $10,000 bond in Wayne County Juvenile Home pending preliminary hearings on neglect charges against his mother, Mary Carter, and on charges against him for cocaine possession and truancy.

Tazar Carter was missing for six months, and police believe that his mother--who is addicted to crack cocaine--gave the boy to a drug dealer to settle a debt. He was forced to sell drugs, was confined to crack houses and was sexually abused by some male drug patrons, police said.

“At some point he became a willing partner in the drug dealing,” Detroit police Inspector Michael Hall said.

Police said Tazar Carter denied he was sold by his mother. Regina Carter, the boy’s grandmother, said that he had told her it was his decision to join the drug dealer.

“He said his mother didn’t sell him,” she said in an interview Tuesday. “He did it of his own free will.”

Regardless, the case provides another mark against Detroit, a city struggling to overcome its “urban crime capital” image. In August, a 33-year-old woman was grabbed from her car and beaten before jumping to her death in the Detroit River as some in the crowd cheered. A year ago, civil rights icon Rosa Parks was robbed and attacked in her own home.

As in these other cases, the Carter incident has captivated the Detroit area, dominating television and newspaper coverage and becoming a main topic of discussion on radio talk shows and street corners.

Before his disappearance, Carter lived with his grandmother after his mother had left him and his three siblings in an abandoned house. His 33-year-old mother is in custody on breaking-and-entering charges. Other charges could be filed against Mary Carter as the investigation continues.

His grandmother said she reported Tazar Carter--a juvenile delinquent and a junior high dropout--missing six months ago but that authorities said they could not act because she was not his legal guardian.

Police believe Tazar Carter, whose street nickname was Cash, was enlisted as a drug pusher and offered for sex to favorite customers. He also may have been physically abused and encouraged to smoke crack to soothe hunger pangs.

Carter phoned his grandmother Monday night after television stories about his disappearance aired. He would not tell her his whereabouts, but her phone was equipped with a caller-identification feature, and she provided the number to police.

He was not found at that location. But shortly afterward, police received an anonymous tip that he was staying at a rundown house on Detroit’s West Side.

Police said the boy was with an older drug dealer who had a long criminal record, but that was not the dealer they were pursuing. They did not release the identity of the suspect.

In a hearing Tuesday in juvenile court, Tazar Carter was charged with possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute, and truancy from home and school. A hearing was set for Dec. 13.

Anthony Crutchfield, the boy’s court-appointed attorney, said that it appears his client was initially coerced into dealing drugs and then became a willing participant.

“Children who have been abused and neglected often go on to break the law and become themselves abusive,” he said.

Carter’s grandmother was relieved that he had been found, but angry and frustrated that it took so long--and that her daughter may have been the one to put the boy’s life in such danger.

“I want to know the truth and exactly what happened to him,” she said.