TEEN GETS SIX MONTHS IN DRUG DEATH

A 14-year-old Redwood City girl has been ordered to serve six months
in a juvenile hall therapeutic detention program for supplying the
drug ``ecstasy'' to a friend who later died of an apparent overdose.

San Mateo County Juvenile Court Judge Marta Diaz also ordered the
teenager at a Wednesday hearing to write a detailed biography of her
dead friend, Irma Perez, and interview the girl's family. The judge
strongly admonished the girl for not understanding the pain she had
caused the family of Perez, an eighth-grader at Belmont's Ralston
Middle School who died April 28, five days after taking the drug at a
sleepover. Prosecutors say Irma would have lived had the other teens
called 911 sooner.

The sentence was part of a plea agreement that shields the teenager
from serving a maximum sentence of seven years in the California Youth
Authority. Three other people also have been charged in Irma's death.
A 14-year-old Belmont girl received a similar sentence last month.