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Add this to the list of Things that Make You an Asshole: Stashing marijuana in the Minnie Mouse backpack of your friend’s 3-year-old daughter, then letting the girl get busted at preschool with said stash all in a state where marijuana is still illegal. Added? Good.
According to New York police, 24-year-old Kelly Mena is an asshole.
If preschool is anything like it was when we were kids he unnamed toddler went to school Friday likely with no idea what was in her favorite backpack other than her usual lunch, snacks and change of clothes. But a 3-year-old stinking like skunk herb didn’t go unnoticed to staff at the New LIFE School in Harlem.
Around 1 p.m. the school called police, who found 14 bags of pot in the girl’s backpack. The girl was then questioned along with her parents (Editor’s note: questioning a three year old!?), who fingered Mena as the culprit. Some news outlets are reporting that Mena is the girl’s cousin.
Mena was arrested Friday night and charged with criminal possession of marijuana and criminal sale of marijuana. He was released on a $150 bail on Saturday.
The New York Daily News reports that Mena confessed to putting about 150 grams of herb into freezer bags in the backpack. Possession of that amount in New York is a misdemeanor with a year in jail and $250 in fines. Sale of marijuana between four ounces and a pound is a felony charge with up to seven years and $5,000. Mena has been arrested several times in the past.
In a strange coincidence, police tell the Daily News that the girl’s father is the older brother of Ramerly Graham, a New York teen shot down, unarmed, by cops back in February.
While jailing people for cannabis isn’t something we condone, Mena clearly needs a time out to think about putting someone else’s kid through such an ordeal. He was released on a $150 bail on Saturday.