YOUR AD HERE »

Hearings for 17-year-old girl accused of procuring illicit drugs continue

A 3rd District Juvenile Court judge Friday morning continued to hear from law enforcement officers involved in the arrest of a 17-year-old Park City girl charged last summer with four second-degree felony counts of distributing a controlled substance.

Mike Cherpeski, a deportation officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who was involved in the teen’s arrest, was cross-examined on Friday about the conditions of the youth’s arrest. The teen’s lawyer, Mary Corporon, questioned whether Cherpeski and another officer who assisted in the arrest delayed disclosing themselves as law enforcement officers. Corporon also called into question the officers’ reaction to the teen’s distressed emotional state at the time of the arrest.

Other officers involved in the arrest testified during hearings in December.



Officers have said during the hearings that the teen did not ask for her parents or a lawyer, and they claim to have provided her with a written copy of her Miranda rights before proceeding to ask her questions.

According to charging documents, the 17-year-old is accused of ordering ecstasy and a drug called 2C-B from a foreign country three separate times during June and July. She ordered the drugs on the dark web, the charges state. Documents also state that, in an earlier incident in 2016, she agreed to have U-47700, a synthetic opioid known as pink, delivered to her home.



Two 13-year-old Park City boys, Ryan Ainsworth and Grant Seaver, ended up dying from overdoses on the U-47700 within two days of each other in September of 2016. One of the charges against the 17-year-old stems from the 2016 incident.

According to charging documents, the teen admitted to the police that she ordered the ecstasy and 2C-B because a friend asked her to order them. She also admitted to ordering them on the dark web using Bitcoin, and that she learned how to purchase the drugs from the teens who purchased U-47700 in 2016, prosecutors say.

Corporon said she filed a motion to suppress evidence from the case in November.

The Park Record is not naming the teen because she is a minor.

Education


See more

Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Park City and Summit County make the Park Record's work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.