A Dorchester couple was barred from contact with children – including their own 2-year-old son – after a Suffolk County grand jury indicted them for allegedly allowing that boy and a 6-year-old neighbor to overdose on illegally-obtained heroin withdrawal medication, District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

Assistant District Attorney Leora Joseph, chief of Conley’s Child Protection Unit, sought that condition of release while HECTOR BATISTA (D.O.B. 3/21/61) and MARIA PEREZ (D.O.B. 9/12/65) await trial on charges of unlawful possession of a Class B substance, assault and battery on a child causing serious bodily injury, and reckless endangerment of a child for the Jan. 16 incident in their Ballou Avenue apartment. The children swallowed tablets of Suboxone, a powerful drug used to treat heroin withdrawal, for which the defendants did not have a prescription.

In addition to granting Joseph’s request that Batista and Perez be barred from contact with children except as ordered by the Department of Children and Families, Suffolk Superior Court Clerk Magistrate Gary D. Wilson ordered both defendants to abstain from drugs and alcohol except for medicine prescribed by a doctor.

Perez, who entered a substance abuse program at a rehabilitation facility following the children’s overdoses, was further required to stay in the program and submit to random drug testing conducted by the Department of Probation. Batista is required to report to probation weekly throughout the duration of the case.

Joseph told the court that, on Jan. 16, Batista and Perez were at home taking care of their child and babysitting their neighbor’s 6-year-old son. While in their care, Joseph said, “the two-year-old and six-year-old ingested a number of Suboxone pills, which were the illegal contraband of the female defendant.”

The pills were kept on a dresser in the bedroom, Joseph said. Perez allegedly laid down on her bed while the children played near the dresser where the pills were being kept.

Later that day, the mother of the 6-year-old came to pick up her child. Perez went to put her child down for a nap. It was at this point, Joseph said, that Perez “realized that his lips had turned blue, he was having difficulty breathing, and was not able to be roused.”

The defendants allegedly flushed the remaining Suboxone down the toilet and called for help. A neighbor called 911 and emergency medical technicians transported the 2-year-old to Boston Medical Center. He remained on a ventilator for two days and required hospitalization for several additional days.

“The child was in serious distress,” Joseph told the court.

On Jan.17, Joseph said, after the defendants realized what had happened to their child, they contacted the other child’s mother. The 6-year-old “had been throwing up, was dizzy, and the mother of that child thought [he] was suffering from some form of the flu when she brought [him] to the hospital,” Joseph said. “In fact, the 6-year-old was also diagnosed with Suboxone poisoning.”

Joseph told the court that Perez had purchased the pills on the street the day before the children ingested them, “attempting to self-medicate and cure a heroin addiction.”

The two children have since recovered from their injuries.

Batista is represented by attorney Anthony Annino, and Perez is represented by attorney Elliot Levine. Both are expected to return to court on April 14.