MOTHER OF CHILD WITH CRACK COCAINE APPEARS IN COURT

GALESBURG - A Knox County prosecutor said Tuesday he plans to present
information in court about the prior conduct of a Galesburg woman whose
4-year-old daughter took crack cocaine to preschool. Rachel Taylor Teague,
28, denies the drugs her daughter took to school belonged to her. She
appeared in court Tuesday on juvenile child neglect charges. Her
adjudicatory hearing, the juvenile equivalent of a trial, continues Thursday.

Three of Teague's children are in the custody of the Department of Children
and Family Services. They were taken March 24, a day after authorities at
West Central Community Services Inc. Head Start in Galesburg reported to
police and DCFS that Teague's child had arrived at school with pieces of
"small rocks" wrapped in cellophane. Although the girl thought the tiny
white objects were candy, forensic chemists determined it was cocaine. A
string of witnesses from the Police Department, the school and DCFS were
called Tuesday. Diane Conrad, the teacher of the preschooler, recalled the
substance the girl brought to school on March 23 "looked suspicious." When
she asked the child where she got it, she said her mom's dresser.

Other school witnesses and police Officer Larry Rigg said the girl told
them the same story.

However, Rigg said that when he arrived at Teague's house late that
afternoon to report the incident to her, the child changed her story. When
her mother asked her where she got the rock-like objects, she pointed first
to the ground by the outdoor steps and later across the yard to a terrace.
DCFS investigator Gail Swanson testified that when she went to Teague's
house the next day, Teague had sent the children to a friend's house and
told her it was because she feared a police drug raid. In Teague's bedroom,
Swanson noted a surveillance camera on the dresser and a police scanner.

When questioned about it, Swanson said, Teague replied she likes to know
who is at her door before she opens it and that she likes to know what's
going on.

Swanson said she went to the friend's house and asked the 4-year-old if she
knew what drugs were. The girl said she knew what "weed" was and closed her
forefinger and thumb together, put them to her lips and puffed. Under
cross-examination by public defender Anthony Vaupel, Swanson testified that
in a previous report she had stated she did not think the 4-year-old could
have reached her mother's dresser, because it is too high. Knox County
Assistant State's Attorney Dean Stone asked that records about Teague's
prior conduct be entered into evidence.

She has been before DCFS numerous times for various charges involving two
of her other children. Vaupel objected and argued that prior cases should
not be relied upon in the current case because it involved neglect, not abuse.

But Judge Patricia Walton overruled the objection.

She said the Juvenile Court Act provision does not distinguish between
neglect and abuse.

When the trial continues Thursday Stone will present information about
Teague's conviction for the delivery of crack in 1996.