Mother Held in Cocaine Incident

The mother of a fourth-grader who allegedly passed around a small bag of cocaine to his classmates in a central Los Angeles school was charged Thursday with child endangering and maintaining a house where narcotics are sold.

Wilhelmina Jackson, 35, who, authorities said, quit her job as a custodian at the Police Academy after the incident at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, was held in lieu of $15,000 bail at Sybil Brand Institute for Women.

Rory Heidelberg, 22, described as a friend of Jackson’s who sometimes lives at her home in the 1700 block of West 46th Street, was charged with the same two felony counts and an additional count of furnishing cocaine to a minor.

An Oct. 28 arraignment date has been set for Heidelberg, who was arrested Monday and freed on $5,000 bail, district attorney’s spokesman Al Albergate said. Jackson’s arraignment is scheduled for the same day.

Albergate said the complaint alleges that Heidelberg gave Jackson’s son the bag of crystallized or “rock” cocaine worth about $500. “Why he gave it to a 9-year-old kid, we don’t know,” Albergate said.

Remain in Custody

The boy and his 16-year-old sister remain in the custody of juvenile authorities.

Police and school administrators said the fourth-grader passed the drug around to 12 classmates Monday while the teacher and a teacher’s aide were occupied with other students. When the two adults discovered what was happening, police were notified.

Of the dozen pupils who tasted and smelled the cocaine, two were briefly hospitalized. A boy who apparently swallowed the drug was treated for a cocaine overdose, and a girl was kept for observation.

Meanwhile, Pasadena police said Thursday that they had arrested an 11-year-old boy in the northwest section of the city for attempting to sell cocaine to undercover officers.

The boy flagged down officers in an unmarked car near Idaho Street and Belmont Avenue, police said.

The boy had been taken into custody four times previously for battery, petty theft and malicious mischief. Officers described the boy as “a real pro salesman.”

Police Lt. Lynn Froistad said the arrest was the third in recent months of young children selling cocaine in the area.

An 8-year-old boy selling the drug on the street and a 11-year-old girl selling from a “rock house” were involved in the earlier incidents.

Lt. Jerry Schultze said a task force of plainclothes officers had been formed at the request of neighborhood residents “fed up” with the open street sales of drugs in Pasadena.

“It had gotten to the point where you had to fight off the dealers when you drove in the area,” he said. “Now, we’re fighting off kids.”

Times staff writer Mary Barber contributed to this story.