COUPLE FACING ARRAIGNMENT IN DRUG CASE

A Keystone Heights couple facing felony charges after the man's 11-year-old
son turned them in for growing marijuana will be arraigned tomorrow morning
in Circuit Court.

Michael Callaway and Kathrine Callaway, the boy's stepmother, are charged
with cultivating, possessing and selling marijuana at their mobile home on
County Road 214. They were arrested at their home Aug. 31 and more than 200
marijuana plants, a pound of cannabis seeds, scales and other paraphernalia
were seized by the Clay County Sheriff's Office.

The arrest culminated an undercover investigation that began several days
earlier when Michael Callaway's son told his grandmother that his father
and stepmother were growing marijuana at home.

Mary Justino, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office, said the child even
sneaked a bag of pot out of his dad's house and gave it to his grandmother
as proof.

The grandmother called the boy's birth mother, Debra Romanello, who has
temporary custody of the child pending the outcome of the case. Romanello
said she was proud of her son for doing ''the right thing.''

''He made a very difficult decision, but he made the right decision,'' she
said. ''He loves his dad. He did not do this to be mean or to stir up
problems.''

Law enforcement authorities said the child told them he was encouraged to
report the alleged crimes by what he had learned in a Drug Abuse Resistance
Education program at McRae Elementary School.

Asked to comment about the child's statement, the DARE officer in the
Keystone Heights area, Deputy Maria Goldman, said she knew the youngster
made a tough decision.

''In reference to the program it makes me feel very good,'' Goldman said,
adding that the child's overriding concern was not getting his father and
stepmother in trouble with the law, but getting them some help.

''He wanted to know if his dad and step mom would get help,'' she said.
''That was his biggest concern.''

Meanwhile, the child is living with his mother, who is remarried and has
two other children. She was granted temporary full custody of her son in a
Circuit Court hearing Sept. 8.

Romanello said she wanted to publicly thank the sheriff's office and
individual officers for their professionalism and sensitivity when they
went to arrest her son's father and stepmother.

''I think the Clay County Sheriff's Office deserves a pat on the back,''
she said. ''Every officer patted my son on the head and told him they knew
he loved his dad, but that he did the right thing.''

They also waited until after the boy's father and stepmother were out of
the child's view, before handcuffing them.