STUDENTS DID NOT HAVE HEROIN

State Lab Test Shows Powder Found In Elm Grove Was Not A Narcotic

Alarm turned to relief for Elm Grove officials Friday after State
Crime Laboratory test results showed that two students arrested near
their school last week were not carrying heroin as originally thought.

But police said they still might seek to prosecute the 14-year-old
boys under laws prohibiting possession of narcotic "look-alikes."

When the students were arrested March 7 near Pilgrim Park Middle
School, police said preliminary tests that showed the boys were
carrying about 10 grams of suspected heroin, which had a street value
of $1,500 or more.

At the time, Elmbrook School Superintendent Matt Gibson called the
situation "absolutely alarming," because there had never been
evidence of heroin before in the Brookfield-based school district.

But tests conducted at a laboratory in Milwaukee have since found
that not only was the white powdery substance not heroin, it was not
any illicit drug at all.

A report from the crime lab does not indicate what the substance was.

Elm Grove Police Chief Jeff Haig said he suspects it was some mixture
involving flour, baking soda or other household product intended to
mimic street narcotics.

Initial tests sometimes wrong

Although preliminary field tests had twice indicated the presence of
heroin, Haig said, it is not unusual for such results to be disproved
in the lab.

"I've seen errors before," he said. "I wouldn't say it's common, but
it's not real rare."

Police and school officials expressed relief that heroin has not been
found in Elm Grove, an upscale Waukesha County community of about
6,200.

Gibson sent a letter to Pilgrim Park parents Friday to inform them
that lab results had ruled out heroin.

"Even though this development is good news," he wrote, "we continue
to be concerned that the substance was touted as a controlled
substance by the boys."

Gibson could not be reached for comment Friday.

Authorities said the two eighth-graders, arrested after fleeing
police on campus, had an unloaded .22-caliber handgun, about 100
rounds of ammunition, a switchblade knife and a bottle of whiskey.

Both boys have been accused in juvenile delinquency petitions with
bringing a gun and ammunition to school.

Although both attend the Elm Grove school, one lives in Brookfield
and the other lives in Milwaukee, attending Pilgrim Park through the
Chapter 220 school desegregation program.

Both have been suspended and face expulsion hearings.

The powder was in an unlabeled brown prescription bottle found in the
Milwaukee boy's pocket.

Lab doesn't label fakes

Michael Camp, director of the crime lab, said that if tests come back
negative for controlled substances, analysts usually do not test to
determine what the substance is - unless prosecutors request it.

"We don't go any further," he said, adding: "We get a lot of negatives."

Attorneys representing the two teenagers could not be reached for
comment Friday.

Waukesha County Assistant District Attorney Timothy Westphal, who is
prosecuting the Brookfield boy, did not pursue any drug-related
offenses, so that case will not change.

Officials in Milwaukee County said a drug count against the Milwaukee
youth would be dismissed.

"I'm very glad it wasn't heroin," said Steven Licata, the Milwaukee
County assistant district attorney prosecuting the case. "It was
disturbing. I don't know what the kids thought it was."

Haig said investigators might seek charges against the two boys for
possession of narcotic look-alikes if it turns out that the boys
claimed it was a controlled substance in discussions with other
students.

The police chief said neither boy denied it was heroin while being
questioned by police.

"There simply was an absence of confirmation or contradiction," he said.