Drug in School Bag Brings 3-Year Term
A Topanga Canyon woman whose 7-year-old daughter found cocaine in her backpack and shared it with classmates was sentenced Friday to three years in prison for possessing the drug for sale.
Maria Christina Torres, 40, who wept quietly throughout the session in Van Nuys Superior Court, was convicted on May 19 despite her claim that a friend had hidden the cocaine in the school bag.
Torres, a Colombian citizen who has been free on $100,000 bail since the incident, was taken into custody after she was sentenced by Judge Alan B. Haber.
Police officers were called to Canoga Park Lutheran School on June 13, 1988, after Torres’ daughter and eight other students sampled the powdery substance, which several described in court as tasting “yucky” or “icky.” None was injured, although one second-grade girl said it made her tongue numb.
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