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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A 5-year-old boy unknowingly brought cocaine to a kindergarten in a New Orleans suburb, leading to the arrest of a man and a woman, police said Wednesday.
A teacher saw the child holding a bag of a white powder Tuesday and called in the school resource officer, who found one bag of powdered cocaine and two of crack cocaine, Slidell police spokesman Daniel Seuzeneau said.
The boy clearly knew nothing about the drugs, Seuzeneau said. Investigators who searched the child's home found marijuana and more cocaine, and believe the adults tried to hide drugs in pockets of the boy's stored clothing, he said in a telephone interview.
"The theory is they were hiding it in the child's clothing with the anticipation that if police did come to their house the last place they would look was in the kid's clothing," he said.
Angelica Stanley, 23, and Ellis Cousin, 51, were arrested on charges of cruelty to a juvenile, possessing drugs with intent to distribute them, and possessing drug paraphernalia, said Seuzeneau. "I believe they were live-in partners," he said.
To protect the boy's privacy and safety, Seuzeneau said, police aren't releasing whether either adult was related to him, or how.
He said he did not know whether Stanley and Cousin had attorneys who could speak for them.
Seuzeneau wouldn't say whether the boy was taken into state custody or turned over to a relative, but said steps were taken to ensure his well-being.
"We definitely wouldn't throw the child back into that environment again," Seuzeneau said.
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