USC Student to Plead Guilty to Selling LSD

A USC student, who authorities say boasted of selling drugs to five teenagers who died in a car wreck after an all-night rave party, agreed to plead guilty Monday to unrelated charges that he sold thousands of doses of LSD to undercover drug agents from his Pasadena home.

Hugh Scott McLetchie, 21, a USC senior, signed a plea agreement Monday in which he admitted selling 11,200 doses of LSD to agents of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration between February and September.

Agents said they purchased most of the LSD in 1,000- and 5,000-unit blocks on several different occasions.

Under the agreement, McLetchie will plead guilty to one count each of conspiracy, selling LSD and selling LSD within 1,000 feet of a playground.

McLetchie’s Pasadena apartment was next door to McDonald Park, which contains playground equipment. The playground charge could double any sentence McLetchie receives when he enters his plea before U.S. District Judge Nora M. Manella next Monday.

McLetchie could receive a sentence of up to 90 years in prison and a fine of up to $4.5 million for the drug and conspiracy charges.

No traces of LSD were found in the blood of the youths who died on their way home from the party in the Angeles National Forest, and McLetchie was not accused of any involvement in their deaths.

The five teenagers died after their Toyota Camry plunged off the Angeles Crest Highway early in the morning of Aug. 29.

McLetchie, a drama major from Walpole, Mass., is the son of a physician and the grandson of a federal appeals court judge in Boston.