ECSTASY VICTIM TOLD FRIENDS SHE FELT LIKE SHE WAS 'GOING TO DIE'

Two Girls in Court to Face Charges in Overdose Death

When a 14-year-old Belmont girl in the throes of her first experience with
the drug ecstasy complained that she felt like she was "going to die," her
two friends offered her water and gave her a bath but did not seek medical
care, sources close to the investigation said Monday.

Irma Perez passed out hours later, and died when she was removed from life
support Wednesday. The two friends allegedly at the slumber party where she
took the pill appeared in San Mateo County Juvenile Court on Monday on
charges of felony child endangerment, possession and furnishing of a
controlled substance.

"I truly think that if she had gotten help early on, she'd probably be
alive today," said San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault.

Monday's hearing was open to the public because the drug charges are among
a small list of exemptions to the secrecy that generally surrounds juvenile
cases. However, The Chronicle is not naming the two teenagers because of
their ages. Both are 14.

According to several sources close to the investigation, Perez had a strong
negative reaction April 23 after taking a blue pill presumed to be MDMA,
known on the street as ecstasy. Toxicological tests are still pending to
show whether the pill was contaminated with other substances.

Perez complained of feeling awful and said she felt like she was "going to
die," the sources said. In response, her friends gave her water and helped
her take a bath.

She also was given ibuprofen and possibly marijuana, apparently because the
friends knew that drug is sometimes used to treat cancer patients, sources
said.

The two girls also contacted a 17-year-old boy who allegedly supplied them
with the drug and asked him for advice, the sources said. He has since been
arrested on the same charges as the two girls.

Also arrested was 20-year-old Antonio Rivera Jr., who was arraigned April
27 on seven felony counts of furnishing drugs to minors and being in
possession of drugs for sale, and one misdemeanor for drug possession.

No medical help was summoned to the Belmont home where the slumber party
was held until the next morning, when Perez was found unconscious.

The two girls were represented in court by attorneys Philip Barnett of San
Mateo and David Cohen of San Francisco.

Both girls entered quietly, wearing oversize orange juvenile hall shirts,
and sat before weeping family members. Both girls appeared to be crying as
well.

Cohen asked for his client to be held in home detention, saying her family
had worked out a schedule for relatives to watch her continually in shifts.
He said the girl had performed well last year after her school ordered her
into drug counseling for her marijuana use and told her not to associate
with Barnett's client. Barnett did not discuss his client's history.

However, Judge Marta Diaz ordered both girls held in Juvenile Hall for the
time being, pending their trials, for their own safety and others.

She told Cohen that even if his client had done well in the past, she had
apparently violated the school's orders by spending time with her
co-defendant -- presumably with her parents' knowledge -- and by allegedly
taking drugs.

In addition, Diaz said, the alleged consequences of that action are more
severe than in the past.

"There's a dead person," she said.

"I understand the circumstances are very different," Cohen said. "Nobody
takes lightly in any way what occurred. It's a tragedy."

Neither Cohen nor Barnett commented after the hearing, nor did the girls'
family members.

Deputy District Attorney Eddie Thomas Jr., who is prosecuting the case,
declined to discuss specifics of the case but said it is important that his
office bring charges against the girls as well as the men from whom they
allegedly bought the drugs.

"Those who furnish drugs provide somebody else an opportunity to get
drugs," Thomas said. "They too should be pursued, especially when somebody
has lost their life."