School Incident : Mother Denies Putting Cocaine in Backpack

A Topanga Canyon woman charged with hiding cocaine in her daughter’s backpack testified Monday that the drug belonged to a man who had borrowed her car, and that items police called drug paraphernalia were actually harmless household goods.

Maria Christina Torres, 40, said the borrower had admitted to her that he had secreted the cocaine in the book bag, which was in the car when she loaned it to him the day before the drug was found.

Although Torres did not identify the man, defense attorney Richard A. Walton said in an interview that he expected the name to emerge during cross-examination of the defendant today by Deputy Dist. Atty. Tracy Watson.

Torres, a Colombian citizen, is on trial in Van Nuys Superior Court for child endangerment and possession of cocaine for sale. If convicted, she could be sentenced to seven years in prison.

Police were called to Canoga Park Lutheran School on June 13 after Torres’ daughter and eight other students tasted the powdery substance, which several described in court as “yucky.” None were injured.

Torres also testified Monday that dozens of items confiscated from her by police and characterized by prosecutor Watson as “paraphernalia of the kind commonly used by cocaine dealers” were actually everyday household goods.

She said that the stack of small plastic bags taken from her home was used by her to measure out in advance her vitamin doses. Two of the three pagers seized by police were inoperable, Torres said.

The portable cellular phone police confiscated from her belonged to a friend, and she was carrying it around because she planned to fix it for the friend, Torres said. A powdery substance found in her car--which police experts said was chalk of the variety commonly used to dilute cocaine--was “some kind of good luck powder” used in a religious ritual, Torres said.

The defendant said she went to the school soon after lunch to retrieve the cocaine from her 8-year-old daughter’s backpack in response to a call from the man who had borrowed the car.

Witnesses called by Watson testified earlier that Torres created a scene in a classroom, demanding the plastic bag, and that she eventually retrieved it from the principal’s office.

Police were called after employees in the school office became suspicious.

Torres testified that she promptly flushed the drug down a toilet at the school.

Police said they later collected slightly more than one-half gram of cocaine that the children had scattered about.

Torres has been free on $100,000 bail.