D.A. Drops Drug Charge Against Mother : Her Fourth-Grader Took Cocaine to School, Passed It Around

At the prosecution’s request, felony charges were dismissed Thursday against the mother of a fourth-grader caught sharing a small amount of “rock” cocaine with his classmates earlier this month at a central Los Angeles school.

Wilhelmina Jackson, 35, had been accused of child endangering and maintaining a house where narcotics are sold. Further investigation, however, showed that the mother was upset that her 9-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter were being exposed to cocaine trafficking, but was too afraid of retaliation to make a crime report, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lauren L. Weis said.

In addition, Weis said, a search of the house in the 1700 block of West 46th Street turned up some drug paraphernalia, marijuana seeds and stems and only .11 of a gram of cocaine--not enough to prove that drugs were being sold there.

Finally, the witness who told police that Jackson’s home was a so-called “rock house” died after charges were filed, the prosecutor said.

“I think it really was a situation where neighborhood people would come on her property and sell from her porch, and she felt powerless to do anything about it,” Weis said.

Weis said both mother and daughter apparently had contacted police, but were too fearful to give officers their names.

“I would have called the police--maybe,” Weis said. “I don’t know that because I don’t live in a neighborhood that is scared daily by these people. . . . She was a single mother. She didn’t have anyone there to help her.

“She could have taken further measures,” the prosecutor added, “but I don’t think that constitutes the crime of child endangerment.”

In a related action Thursday, prosecutors amended their complaint against Rory Heidelberg, who is alleged to have given the bag of cocaine to Jackson’s 9-year-old son to keep for him. The youngster took the bag to Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School on Oct. 6 and passed it around among his classmates. Two children were briefly hospitalized.

Heidelberg, 22, described as a friend of Jackson’s daughter, is to be arraigned Tuesday in Los Angeles Municipal Court on a single felony count of inducing a minor to violate provisions of the state Health and Safety Code. Weis said that crime carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Jackson’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Ralph A. Courtney III, said his client had moved into the neighborhood more than three years ago, before “the area went to hell.” She was unable to prevent drug sellers from using her front yard while she was at work, he said.

Resigned From Job

After the incident at the school, Jackson was asked to resign from her job as a custodian for the Los Angeles Police Academy. Police Department spokesman Cmdr. William Booth said she is “unlikely” to win her job back.

“As an administrative matter, the evidence was sufficient to have her terminated as an employee of the Police Department,” Booth said.

Jackson’s children, meanwhile, were placed in the protective custody of their grandmother. Now that she has been released from Sybil Brand Institute for Women, where she was held in lieu of $15,000 bail, “my client will want her children back,” Courtney said.

Child’s Best Interest

Assistant County Counsel Larry Cory, who heads the children’s services division, said he could not discuss the Jackson case specifically. As a general rule, he said, “we are not concerned with the criminal case. Our decision is basically a decision as to what is in the best interests of the child.”

Said an attorney who is familiar with dependency cases: “If the mother can establish that there’s no drug activity in the home, then there’s really not a good reason to keep the child out of the home.”

A settlement hearing in the custody case is scheduled for Nov. 4. If the matter cannot be resolved then, it will go to trial Nov. 18.