Woman Planted Drugs In Sparta Student's Backpack, Reported Him: Police

SPARTA, NJ — A Succasunna woman is facing multiple charges after police say she planted drugs in a high schooler's backpack and attempted to frame him for selling them in school.

Beth E. Weickert faces multiple charges, including child endangerment, after she allegedly planted prescription drugs in a male student's backpack and texted a Sparta High School teacher a fake tip that the student was selling drugs on school grounds, police said. (Neither the student nor the teacher were named by police.)

Sparta Police were called to the high school on Jan 3. after a teacher received an anonymous text message saying a student had drugs in his backpack. 13 pills (an aoxycodone hydrochloride/acetaminophen mixture) were found by school authorities, but the student was "adamant" the pills were not his, police said.

The student was suspended from school, and police began processing charges against him.

Following interviews with the student and his father, police began investigating the student's claims that the drugs had been planted.

During the investigation, police discovered the number sending the anonymous texts was a "spoof," meaning the number displayed on the teacher's phone was not the number the texts were actually sent from.

Police received a subpoena to trace the phone number that send the anonymous texts to the teacher, which they say led them to Weickert through her IP address.

Weickert denied any knowledge of the texts during a Feb. 1 interview and refused to answer questions without a lawyer. During the investigation, it was also revealed Weickert had sent a sexually explicit picture to a 15-year-old male.

Police are not saying whether or not Weickert and the student knew each other or a possible motive to protect the identity of the student, Sgt. Dennis Proctor told Patch.

Weickert was charged with cyber harassment, endangering the welfare of a child, obscene material for a person under 18, false reports to law enforcement authorities and fabricating evidence.

She was released with a pending court date.

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