Mother charged as police investigate marijuana and Xanax sold to Catholic high school students
By Teri Figueroa
The San Diego Union-Tribune
October 19, 2017
The mother of a Cathedral Catholic High School student has been charged with supplying students with marijuana and prescription pills, an investigation prompted after the parents of one minor found pills in their child’s room.
According to court documents, investigators suspect the woman, 48-year-old Kimberly Quach, used a teenager to sell marijuana to students of Cathedral Catholic, a private school in Carmel Valley, as well as to students from La Jolla.
A search warrant affidavit filed Oct. 3 by San Diego police investigators alleges that Quach showed the teenager how to make the sales, and that the teen collected customer money in cash and through online payments. The teen told investigators that she made fewer than 10 sales of an ounce of marijuana, for $25 each, in the 30 days before the arrest.
The document paints Quach’s home as a place where minors knew they could obtain and smoke marijuana, and that she also provided alcohol and nicotine products. “It is known at the school that if you need anything, you can have Quach buy it for you,” a police investigator wrote in the search warrant affidavit.
Quach, who lives in Carmel Valley, was arrested in late September and subsequently charged with 37 counts, including 10 charges of employing a minor to sell or carry marijuana, and 16 counts of furnishing marijuana to a minor over the age of 14.
There are also two charges that she sold or provided a minor with suboxone, a controlled substance associated with treating opioid dependence but also reportedly used for pain relief, and one charge of selling or providing a minor with alprazolam (Xanax), a tranquilizer.
Other charges include five counts of child abuse, one count of theft by false impersonation and an accusation that she provided a place for people to obtain drugs.
The alleged crimes took place sometime between Jan. 1 and Sept. 28, the day Quach was arrested. As of Thursday, she remained jailed in lieu of $200,000 bail.
Quach has pleaded not guilty. The Public Defender’s office is representing her, but declined comment Thursday.
According to the search warrant affidavit, Quach came under suspicion after parents of a teenager found suboxone in their daughter’s room, then text messages between their daughter and Quach, who was the parent of a friend of the teen. The daughter asked Quach for pain medication and Quach supplied her with the suboxone.
A search of the home Quach shared with her fiance and two minor children turned up marijuana plants drying on tables throughout the home, as well as planters, grow lights and other items used to grow the plant.
Kevin Eckery, vice chancellor with the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, said in an interview Thursday that Cathedral Catholic officials were made aware of the investigation shortly after Quach’s arrest.
Eckery also said the ongoing investigation involved Cathedral Catholic and other high schools in the area.
“As part of that effort, San Diego Police and the District Attorney’s Office are directly contacting a number of CCHS families to ask for their help,” he said in a statement provided to the media. “Officers working the case believe there are CCHS students who may be witnesses or who may have information that would assist them.”
He said the school is not a party to the conversations happening between police, parents and the students who may have been involved in or aware of the alleged criminal activity.
“This is something that affects the school community for sure, but we are not going to be privy to the content of all these conversations,” he said.
As for fallout for involved students, he said the school would “cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Quach faces up to 60 years and four months in prison if convicted of all charges, according to the District Attorney’s office. Her preliminary hearing is set for Dec. 14.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The tuition at Cathedral Catholic High School costs $16,500 a year.
1 comment:
This was done in an effort to obtain a good education for her child. 1st offense = probation.
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