An elementary school teaching assistant related to a former Rhode Island congressman allegedly misplaced a baggie of cocaine inside the school nurse’s office bathroom.
Stephanie Cicilline-Given, 58, was arrested on March 12 when cops linked her to the drugs found inside Chester W. Barrows Elementary School, where she is employed as a teaching assistant, according to a police report obtained by 12 News.
Cicilline-Given is former Democratic Rep. David Cicilline’s younger sister, NBC 10 News reported.
The school nurse turned over a plastic bag containing cocaine and a plastic straw, commonly used to snort the substance, to the principal, who notified the Cranston Police Department, according to the police report.
Authorities homed in on Cicilline-Given, the last known adult to have used the bathroom before morning recess.
Cicilline-Given, though, was none the wiser, and assumed police had found her missing vape.
When an officer informed her they had actually discovered a bag of cocaine, she asked if she would need a lawyer — before they even accused her of any wrongdoing, the report said.
Cicilline-Given repeatedly inquired about her vape while insisting she didn’t know anything about the cocaine. After police interviewed her colleagues, Cicilline-Given circled back with a very specific hypothetical.
“I don’t want all these teachers to go through this. What if I said the cocaine was mine? What would happen next?” she asked, according to the report.
The boneheaded teaching assistant backtracked and clarified she wasn’t confessing to misplacing the cocaine in question, but rather admitting to being an occasional cocaine user outside of school, the report said.
She explained that she changed purses that morning and likely left her vape at home. She claimed she wanted to help, but was worried about being laid off.
Cicilline-Given started to laugh as the officer pressed her for more information on the baggie.
Investigators speculated the cocaine fell out of her bag while she was doing her makeup in the bathroom, the report stated.
Cicilline-Given eventually told police she wanted to speak with an attorney. She was taken to the Cranston Police Department and charged with a misdemeanor count of possession of cocaine, according to the arrest log.
She is scheduled to appear in court on April 21.
Cicilline-Given isn’t the first person in her family to have a negative run-in with the law.
In 2018, Susan Cicilline-Buonanno, Cicilline-Given’s sister and a former Rhode Island councilwoman, was pulled over on the tv show “A&E Live PD” under suspicion of driving under the influence. She was released after the officer determined she was “under medication.”
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