Mom faces drug charges

The Boardman mother
also has an unrelated drug-related charge pending.

YOUNGS-TOWN — A drug-court graduate traveling with her 3-year-old son was arrested on drug and child endangering charges after a traffic stop.

Patrolmen Patrick Mulligan and Malik Mostella, members of the Street Crimes Unit, followed a gold Pontiac they saw leave a known drug house on West Warren Avenue and pulled the car over when the driver failed to signal a turn onto Oak Hill Avenue.

As the officers approached the car just before 9 p.m. Tuesday, they noticed a 3-year-old boy in the front passenger seat, not secured in a car seat.

The driver, Micquel S. Angel, 39, of Mathews Road, Boardman, was arrested on charges of possession of dangerous drugs (pills in a bottle), possession of heroin, possession of drug paraphernalia (crack pipe), child endangering, obstruction of justice and failure to signal a turn. She was being held in the Mahoning County jail in lieu of $6,000 bond and will be back in municipal court Dec. 12 for preliminary and pretrial hearings.

The officers said they saw fragments of crack cocaine scattered near the driver’s seat and pieces of abrasive scouring pad all over the carpet when Angel was asked for her driver’s license. Bits of copper scouring pads are used as a pipe filter to retain cocaine vapors by those who smoke crack.

On top of Angel’s open purse, police found an unlabeled pill bottle that contained five pills. Four bindles (doses) of heroin were also found in the purse, reports show.

Angel told the officers she had dropped off cleaning supplies to a friend on Warren Avenue. When told to step out of the car, she refused and started dialing on her cell phone, police said.

After being dragged out of the car, she struggled and tried to fall to the ground but the officers each had her by an arm. The little boy was placed in the rear of the officers’ unmarked cruiser because he was crying, reports show.

The officers said they saw Angel trying to push off her right shoe and then kick something under the seat. A broken crack pipe was found where she kicked.

The woman’s boyfriend was called to the scene and her son was released to him at her request, police said.

In February 2002, Angel pleaded guilty in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to four felony counts of possessing illegal drug documents. The sentence was held in abeyance and she entered Judge Jack Durkin’s drug court. She graduated from drug court in January 2003 and the charges were dismissed, records show.

In September, Angel was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and failure to maintain reasonable control after an arrest by Beaver police. The case is pending in Mahoning County Area Court in Canfield, where a pretrial hearing is set for Friday.

Also in September, in Boardman, Angel was cited for a child restraint violation and was fined for the offense.