Mother Whose Child Took Drug to School Pleads Guilty

A North Hollywood woman who was charged with possessing cocaine for sale after her 8-year-old daughter brought some of the drug to school pleaded guilty Wednesday to the charge.

Carmen Garcia, 31, entered her plea before Van Nuys Municipal Court Judge Robert L. Swasey before her preliminary hearing was to begin. Swasey scheduled sentencing for Jan. 4 in Van Nuys Superior Court.

In exchange for Garcia’s plea, prosecutors have agreed to drop an additional count of felony child endangering, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert J. Schuit.

The maximum sentence on the remaining count is four years in prison. The standard sentence for a first-time offender, however, is probation and less than a year in jail, Schuit said.

Garcia was arrested Oct. 19 after her 8-year-old daughter brought some white powder to a teacher at Oxnard Street School in North Hollywood. Police described the girl as being curious and suspicious about the drug.

School officials then notified police, who tested the substance and found it to be cocaine. Garcia was arrested as she arrived to pick up her daughter, police said.

Police searched the house and found about 14 grams of cocaine in 13 packets, Schuit said.

Garcia waived her Miranda rights and admitted possessing the cocaine, Schuit said.

Garcia’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Nancy S. Gast, could not be reached for comment.

It was the second such incident in the San Fernando Valley in the past year and a half. Maria Christina Torres of Topanga Canyon was arrested in June, 1988, and sentenced to three years in prison after her 7-year-old daughter brought a golf ball-sized chunk of cocaine to school in her backpack. Several classmates tasted the cocaine.

Garcia’s daughter was placed in the custody of her father, who lives elsewhere.