SPARTA — A Morris County woman is facing charges after police say she planted prescription drugs in a 16-year-old boy’s backpack and tried to set him up for a drug dealing arrest.
Beth E. Weickert, of Succasunna, was charged with cyber harassment, endangering the welfare of a child, providing false reports to law enforcement authorities and fabricating evidence, Sparta Sgt. Dennis Proctor said in a news release.
The investigation began on Jan. 3 when Sparta police responded to Sparta High School on a report of a juvenile possessing drugs in a backpack, Proctor said.
A teacher received an anonymous text message stating a juvenile was using and selling drugs on school property and later confiscated 13 oxycodone hydrocloride/acetaminophen pills from the teen’s backpack, he said.
The teen remained adamant that he did not know how the drugs got into his backpack and was suspended from school while charges were pending from police, Proctor said.
After interviewing the boy and his father on Jan. 11, Detective Brian Hassloch began to look into the boy’s claims about the drugs being planted in his backpack, he said.
Hassloch began to investigate the phone numbers from which the teacher received the anonymous tip and later developed Weickert as a suspect, Proctor said.
He then applied for a subpoena on Jan. 19 to determine the “spoofed” phone numbers from which the texts were sent, Proctor said. Those were traced back to Weickert’s phone and IP address days later, Proctor said.
“Spoofing,” Proctor said, is the practice of causing the telephone network to indicate to the receiver of a call a number different than the actual origin.
Hassloch interviewed Weickert on Jan. 24 but she didn’t provide any further information about her involvement in this incident, Proctor said. The next day, the prosecutor’s office confirmed the messages had been sent from her phone and IP address, Proctor said.
Police interviewed her again on Feb. 1 but when confronted with information about the origin of the text messages she denied any knowledge of the incident, requested a lawyer and stopped answering questions, Proctor said.
Police haven’t provided more information into how Weickert and the teen knew each other, or Weickert’s possible motivation.
However, Proctor said investigators have also found evidence indicating she’d sent an obscene photo to another teen boy, but the investigation into that incident is ongoing. She’s facing a charge of sending an explicit photo to a minor in connection with that matter.
Weickert was served her charges and released pending an appearance in court.
Justin Zaremba may be reached at jzaremba@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinZarembaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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