It's a plot twist right out of "Desperate Housewives."
Only this one played out in the western suburbs where a 38-year-old mother had her high-school aged son plant drugs in another boy's backpack, authorities allege.
The mother then phoned in to report where the marijuana and pills could be found.
The motive: She was mad at the boy's mother, police say.
Now Christine Marmolejo, of the 4000 block of Williams Street in Downers Grove, is facing charges of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance and conspiracy, both felonies, the DuPage County state's attorney's office announced on Friday.
She was being held in the DuPage County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond.
'She'll do whatever to save him'
Her family would only say Friday night that Marmolejo, who underwent treatment for a mental illness at Hinsdale Hospital in the days leading up to the incident, was embroiled in a years-long, ongoing feud with the victim's mother. The women had been neighbors and friends, but clashed after the suspect's husband had done some deck work roughly a year ago for the other family, her sister said. Allegations ping-ponged back and forth, including charges that some tools were not returned.
Marmolejo's sister also said this is a case of a mother taking the rap to protect her 14-year-old son, a high school freshman. "My sister loves her son. She'll do whatever to save him," said the sister, who wished to remain anonymous.
On Wednesday, Westmont High School received a phone tip about drugs in the backpack of a student there, according to State's Attorney Joe Birkett. Westmont police were notified and found less than 2.5 grams of cannabis or marijuana and six 2-milligram tablets of Clonazepam, a generic Klonopin -- described as an anticonvulsive prescribed for epilepsy as well as for anxiety -- in the backpack of a student.
Birkett: 'New twist on retribution'
Clues pointed to another student planting the drugs in the backpack, prosecutors said. Further investigation showed the suspect's mother had put him up to it because she was having problems with the other boy's mother, they said.
"It makes you sick," Birkett said.
"Parents are supposed to be on the lookout for each other's children and not trying to use them as a vehicle to exact revenge against some other adult family member. Not only has she put herself in a predicament, but her son, too."
In one episode of the popular Sunday night soap opera, one of the "Housewives" tipped off the school that her son had drugs in his locker -- part of a complicated plot twist to make the son understand the consequences of his actions.
Birkett said he wasn't sure how Marmolejo allegedly hatched this plot.
"Regardless of where she got the idea, it was a stupid one," he said.
"You always say 'OK, now I've seen it all.' This is a new twist on retribution."
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