Pubdate: Thu, 05 Oct 2006
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2006 The Sun-Times Co.
Contact:  http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Author: Dan Rozek, Staff Reporter

MOM MADE SON PLANT DRUGS ON ENEMY'S SON

She Could Get 15 Years In Prison After Guilty Plea

Trying to get even with an  enemy, a Downers Grove woman decided to 
plant drugs on  her rival's son -- and she enlisted her own 
14-year-old  boy to do the dirty work, DuPage County prosecutors  said.

Christine J. Marmolejo, 39, pleaded guilty to a felony  drug charge 
Wednesday in the bizarre revenge plot that  could send her to prison 
for 15 years.

'It was payback time' She faces the hefty sentence --  triple the 
normal maximum for such a charge -- because  she used her son to slip 
marijuana and prescription  drugs into the other boy's backpack at 
Westmont High  School.

The scheme that unfolded March 22 was prompted by a  long-simmering 
but vaguely defined dispute between  Marmolejo and a Westmont woman, 
prosecutors said.

"It was payback time," prosecutor Steve Knight quoted  Marmolejo as saying.

Marmolejo gave her son a small amount of marijuana and  six pills of 
a prescription anti-anxiety medication,  telling him to put them into 
the other boy's bag,  Knight said. Marmolejo's son slipped the drugs 
into the  other boy's backpack, which was under his chair in a 
classroom, Knight said.

Boy implicated mother Later that day, Marmolejo called  the school 
and reported that her son had seen drugs in  the other boy's bag. 
Police searched the teen's  backpack and found the drugs, but later 
questioned  Marmolejo's son, who implicated himself and his mother, 
Knight said, adding that the boy told police "his  family had been 
arguing with the other family for  years."

Marmolejo also acknowledged while being questioned that  she provided 
the drugs and concocted the plan. "She  indicated she did this 
because she hated the mother of  the other student," Knight said.

Son pled guilty, too Marmolejo's son, now 15, has  pleaded guilty to 
a drug delivery charge in DuPage  County Juvenile Court. He is 
scheduled to be sentenced  next month.

Marmolejo remains in the DuPage County Jail until she  is sentenced 
later this month. The drug delivery charge  she was convicted of 
normally carries a five-year  maximum prison term, but because she 
used her  14-year-old son to transfer the drugs, she faces a  maximum 
15-year prison term.

Her attorney declined to comment on the guilty plea.
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