HTTP/1.0 200 OK Content-Type: text/html Drug Raid Interrupts Toddler's Birthday Party 
Pubdate: Wed, 09 Feb 2005
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2005 Detroit Free Press
Contact:  http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Author: David Hammer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)

DRUG RAID INTERRUPTS TODDLER'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Police on a drug raid burst into a home during a
toddler's birthday party, startling children who were getting ready to
eat cake.

Amid wails from children and a few parents -- and a phone ringing
incessantly with prospective drug buyers -- officers arrested a
pregnant woman and accused her of selling marijuana from the house.

Police did not know the party was going on when they decided to make
the bust Friday evening.

"The first thing I saw was the birthday table and cake, so I yelled
for everyone to put away their guns," Shannon Hills Police Chief
Richard Friend, who led the raid, said Tuesday. "You could see they
had a nightmare-come-true. Everyone just froze and looked at me. The
parents started crying, and then the kids started crying."

Elizabeth Leah Sauls, 21, was hosting her niece's second birthday
party. Sauls, who was arrested on drug charges, was allegedly smoking
marijuana in a bedroom and continuing to sell pot out of the house as
the police moved in.

Friend said she received 35 calls requesting the drug when police were
there. "We barely had time to conduct interviews because the phone
kept ringing," he said.

Sauls was released without bond because the jail was full, Friend
said.

She told police she was selling the marijuana to pay for diapers and
food for her 1-year-old, but police said they had been gathering
evidence for weeks, making undercover purchases and arresting buyers
leaving the home. Officials said they found $860 and scales in the
house.

The 2-year-old birthday girl and Sauls' 1-year-old child were turned
over to their grandmother. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake