9 teens busted in ‘sneaky’ sting

By Laura Crimaldi
Boston Herald
04/09/06

A Falmouth High School drug sting that netted nine arrests is raising eyebrows among defense attorneys who wonder whether planting a 23-year-old undercover cop looking for drugs and peddling a sob story is entrapment.

‘‘It seems a little cruel,” said Hub lawyer Norman Zalkind. ‘‘If I were the parents of these kids, I would want to stop them from dealing the drugs. But I wouldn’t want to put them in a position of getting this woman to basically seduce them, getting them caught and facing serious problems.”

Nine high school students were arrested at home Friday after undercover officer Kaitlin Keane posed as a high school student for four months.

Keane told students her mother died, she had an absentee father and she needed drugs to dull the pain. Since January, she bought marijuana 31 times and ecstasy once from students, police said.

The teens, ages 14 to 17, face 40 drug-related charges in all.

Defense attorney Elaine Whitfield Sharp called the tactic ‘‘sneaky,” adding, ‘‘The way they’ve gone about is not the way to go about it.”