Pubdate: Wed, 01 Jul 1998
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Contact:   (414) 224-8280
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/
Author: David Scott of the Journal Sentinel staff

PARENTS TURN IN TEENS IN DRUG CASES

Police Use Dog To Find Pot In Elm Grove House

Three drug-using Waukesha County teenagers have been turned over to police
by their parents in the last two weeks, and in one of the cases a
drug-sniffing dog was used to find a marijuana stash in a home, officials
said Tuesday.

On Monday, Elm Grove police called upon a dog named Chesty to check a tip
that a 13-year-old boy was selling marijuana out of his house -- a tip the
boy's parents called in to police while he was sleeping.

"The parents had suspicions their son had hid drugs in the house, and they
feared he may be selling them," Elm Grove Police Capt. Gus Moulas said.
"They wanted us to come into the house and try to find the material."

And on June 19 and June 24, parents in two separate Menomonee Falls cases
turned their 14-year-olds over to police after catching them with drugs,
Menomonee Falls Police Capt. Darick Ottow said.

"In both cases, the parents just seemed to be at their wits' end and didn't
know what to do next," Ottow said.

In the Elm Grove case, police searched a home Monday after receiving a call
from the 13-year-old's parents, who suspected he was selling drugs, Moulas
said.

The resulting search, conducted by a yellow Labrador from the Milwaukee
County Sheriff's Department, found the boy had hidden marijuana in at least
three different places in the house and was in possession of more than 20
grams of the drug, along with eight pipes and a small scale used for
measuring the drug, police said.

Moulas said the boy was taken into custody and was referred by police to
Waukesha County's Juvenile Court on charges of drug, drug paraphernalia and
tobacco product possession.

At first, Moulas said, the boy didn't cooperate with police, forcing them
to bring in the dog. After arriving at the Elm Grove police station and
being told a drug-sniffing dog was being used, the boy started talking,
Moulas said.

"He then told us exactly where the dog had found the drugs," Moulas said.

According to Moulas, the boy's mother said he and a friend had spent most
of Sunday and early morning hours on Monday at Summerfest. While he was
gone, the boy's mother discovered in his room two marijuana pipes and a
small plastic bag containing what she suspected was marijuana.

The boy's mother called police around 9:30 a.m. on Monday, while the boy
and his friend were asleep, and asked them to come to the house. Officers
were taken by the parents to the home's basement, where they found a second
small plastic bag containing a leafy substance and three drinking glasses
that had been modified into a device used to smoke marijuana, Moulas said.

The Elm Grove officers then confronted the boy and his friend, who were
still sleeping in the boy's room upstairs. The friend was questioned and
released, but the boy was uncooperative and refused to answer questions
about the evidence already uncovered or any other stashes of drugs hidden
in the house, Moulas said.

Based on the size of the house and a suspicion the boy had hidden drugs in
different places, the officers made a decision to call in a K-9 unit,
Moulas said.

"We occasionally use a drug dog in Elm Grove during traffic stops," Moulas
said. "But this time, the dog handler (from the Waukesha County Sheriff's
Department) was on vacation and not available."

So a call was made to the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department, which sent
Detective Gil Pagan and his dog Chesty.

The pair are based at the airport as part of the Milwaukee County sheriff's
drug unit. The dog didn't have any problems alerting Elm Grove officers to
three areas where the smell of marijuana was strong, Moulas said.

In one of the spots Chesty identified, police found a plastic bag
containing 8 grams of marijuana. Moulas said they suspect the boy had
recently hidden drugs in the two other spots Chesty picked out.

The youth's father declined comment, but Moulas commended the parents for
calling police.

"They were trying to do the right thing, instead of ignoring the problem
and not getting the drugs off the street," Moulas said. "It's very
difficult for parents to make a decision that may result in a charge, even
if it is in the best interest of the child."

In the first Menomonee Falls case, the father turned his son over to police
on June 19 after seeing him tuck a bag of marijuana into his pants. With
the boy already on home detention, his case is being handled by his
probation officer.

The second case involved a 14-year-old girl from Illinois who had run away
from home and was living with her father in Menomonee Falls. When he
learned his daughter had violated his no-drugs policy, he turned her over
to police on June 24.

"When nothing else seems to be working, this at least gets (the children)
into the system," said Ottow, the Menomonee Falls police captain. "This
gets them some formal help."

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