{"id":5700,"date":"2014-05-05T12:45:11","date_gmt":"2014-05-05T16:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=5700"},"modified":"2014-05-05T12:45:11","modified_gmt":"2014-05-05T16:45:11","slug":"alleged-source-of-heroin-at-caln-elementary-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=5700","title":{"rendered":"Alleged source of heroin at Caln Elementary arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"

D.A. blasts district for its handling of news that 7-year-old had drugs in school<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/strong>,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Pauline<\/a>

Pauline Bilinski-Munion<\/p><\/div>\n

After investigators identified the source of heroin \u2013 distributed by a first-grader at Caln Elementary to at least one classmate on Friday, May 3 \u2013 as the child\u2019s grandmother, county detectives took her into custody two days later, the District Attorney\u2019s Office announced on Monday, May 6.<\/p>\n

The arrest prompted Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan to criticize the response of the Coatesville Area School District (CASD) to the incident, suggesting \u201cCASD and its solicitor completely failed in their duty to protect the children in their care.\u00a0 CASD should be ashamed, and the parents of these children should be outraged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hogan said county detectives led an \u201cemergency investigation\u201d that resulted in charges against Pauline Bilinski-Munion, 56, of Modena, for endangering the welfare of children and drug offenses. She was taken to Chester County Prison to await a Thursday, May 8, preliminary hearing after failing to post $25,000 cash bail, court records said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Nine<\/a>

Nine bags of heroin were in the possession of a Caln Elementary School first-grader on Friday, District Attorney Tom Hogan said.<\/p><\/div>\n

Bilinski-Munion, a heroin user, left the drugs out in her home while taking care of her grandchildren, and her 7-year-old grandson found some of the heroin, brought it into Caln Elementary School, and distributed it to at least one other student, Hogan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeroin in an elementary school is a nightmare,\u201d said Hogan.\u00a0 \u201cAny exposure to heroin for a young child is likely to result in death.\u00a0 The defendant is lucky that she was not responsible for the death of her own grandson or somebody else\u2019s child.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the criminal complaint, a teacher at Caln Elementary heard that one of the students had drugs and spoke with the child Friday morning. \u00a0Nine bags of heroin \u2013 stamped \u201cVictoria Secret\u201d \u2013 in the boy\u2019s pants pocket were given to the school principal. The child initially claimed that he found the drugs in the schoolyard, but later admitted that he brought them from home.\u00a0 The drugs were turned over to the Coatesville Area School District (CASD) police, the complaint said.<\/p>\n

Hogan, who said he learned about the incident on Saturday, May 3, from media reports, assigned Chester County Detectives Joe Nangle, Kristin Lund, and Robert Balchunis to the case.The detectives interviewed the child with some relatives, Hogan said, adding that the child usually stays with his aunt in Coatesville, but recently had been living with his mother, father, and grandmother in Modena.\u00a0 The child stated that he found the drugs on the floor by the washing machine at that residence, the complaint said.<\/p>\n

The detectives executed a search warrant at the Modena residence on Saturday evening, Hogan said.\u00a0 Nobody was home, but they located heroin bags in the residence, as well as an empty heroin bag in a pair of children\u2019s shorts, he said.<\/p>\n

The detectives also located another 7-year-old- student from Caln Elementary School who had contact with the child.\u00a0 That student\u2019s mother told detectives that while walking in the Exton Square Mall at 4 p.m. on Friday, she found her child in possession of a bag of heroin stamped \u201cVictoria Secret.\u201d\u00a0 The student stated that the classmate had supplied the drugs, Hogan said.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, May 4, detectives located and interviewed the child\u2019s mother, father, and grandmother, Hogan said. Bilinski-Munion said she was baby-sitting her 7-year-old grandson and a 1-year-old baby on May 1 at the Modena residence, brought heroin into the house, and lost track of it, Hogan said.\u00a0 Her grandson found it and brought it to school the next day, Hogan said.<\/p>\n

News that \u201ca dangerous and illegal substance\u201d had been found at the school was delivered through a telephone message to parents on Friday evening, sending shockwaves through the school community. The message said a student reported finding found blue baggies in the grass during recess. \u201cUpon further investigation, we found the small blue bags came from another student\u2019s home,\u201d the message said. \u201cThat student did not ride the bus, but through the investigation, it was discovered the student attempted to hand out the bags to other students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The message urged parents to have a conversation with their children to see if it was distributed to them and to take them to the nearest emergency room if they might have had contact with the substance. District officials later confirmed that the substance had been identified as heroin.<\/p>\n

In the news release, Hogan said \u201ca late and vague notification to parents about a \u2018dangerous and illegal\u2019 substance is too little and too late. From a law enforcement perspective, CASD\u2019s solicitor should have immediately notified the District Attorney\u2019s Office.\u00a0 CASD\u2019s notification to the parents was inadequate to help the children, but served to tip off the defendant, putting the investigation at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

District Solicitor James Ellison took issue with Hogan\u2019s remarks. He said that the school district has its own police force and that they are responsible for contacting the local department that has jurisdiction. In this case, Ellison said \u201cthree separate police departments were contacted: Caln, Coatesville, and South Coatesville. Both Coatesville and South Coatesville rendered immediate assistance,\u201d he said, adding that officers accompanied a school district officer to the student\u2019s home on Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy understanding is that our police department contacts the appropriate local police department directly,\u201d Ellison said, adding that he does not get involved in those contacts or the subsequent reports they generate. \u201cTo my knowledge, it has never been protocol \u00a0to contact the District Attorney\u2019s Office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hogan urged anyone with additional information about the case to contact Chester County Detectives at 610-344-6866.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

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D.A. blasts district for its handling of news that 7-year-old had drugs in school By Kathleen Brady Shea,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times After investigators identified the source of heroin \u2013 distributed by a first-grader at Caln Elementary to at least one classmate on Friday, May 3 \u2013 as the child\u2019s grandmother, county detectives took her into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[3632,156,733,433,3633,550],"class_list":["post-5700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-caln-elementary","tag-chester-county-district-attorney-tom-hogan","tag-heroin","tag-modena","tag-pauline-bilinski-munion","tag-south-coatesville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}