For Allegedly Selling Drugs to Kids, Pair to Stand Trial
MURRIETA (CNS) – A young man and woman accused of dealing marijuana to students at schools throughout the Temecula Valley must stand trial on multiple felony charges, a judge ruled Friday.
Catherine Ann Hickisch and Anthony Harry Mathisen, both 18 and of Murrieta, were arrested last March following a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation.
At the end of a preliminary hearing Friday at the Southwest Justice Center, Superior Court Judge F. Paul Dickerson found there was sufficient evidence to bound the pair over for trial on two counts each of distribution of controlled substances and possession of controlled substances for sale, as well as one count of furnishing marijuana to a child under 14 years old.
The judge scheduled a post-preliminary hearing arraignment for the defendants on April 12 at the Murrieta courthouse.
Each is free on a $30,000 bond.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Perez, in February 2023, deputies at the Southwest Station in French Valley initiated an investigation stemming from information that cannabis “was being sold to juveniles who attend middle and high schools throughout the city of Temecula and unincorporated French Valley.”
Investigators determined that Hickisch and Mathisen were allegedly selling “vape pens containing concentrated cannabis to minors,” Perez said.
“Furthermore, it was determined Mathisen and Hickisch distributed concentrated cannabis and psilocybin — commonly referred to as mushrooms — using a mobile delivery service, identified as `AtomicClouds,”‘ the sergeant said.
He did not disclose whether any of the victims suffered health complications as a result of taking the drugs.
Deputies obtained and served warrants at the defendants’ shared residence in the area of Madison Avenue and Murrieta Hot Springs Road, where “evidence related to the sales of marijuana and psilocybin was located and recovered,” Perez said.
The duo were taken into custody without incident.
Neither has prior documented felony or misdemeanor convictions in Riverside County.
For More Law and Disorder News Visit www.zapinin.com/law-and-disorder.
