Benecia Police Department Lt. Frank Hartig said Teresa Gilmete Badger was booked into the Solano County Jail on Friday on suspicion of poisoning. The 47-year-old Badger's arrest capped a month-and-a-half-long investigation that started with a tip from the Benicia Unified School District's superintendent.
Hartig says that several people attending the Nov. 21 dinner at a private home complained of feeling ill or high from an unknown substance and that two of them sought treatment at a hospital. Blood work on one of the patients tested positive for THC, an active ingredient in marijuana.
"It was obviously something she ate and she was hallucinating. She was distraught over what happened basically," Joseph Nicols, a friend of poisoning victim said.
"There were probably 15 to 20 people at the party and I would say half of them developed symptoms or objective signs of being under the influence," Lt. Frank Hartig with the Benicia Police Department said
Investigators say another guest took some of the marijuana-laced food home and their 15-year-old child ate it, and then got sick. Badger denied any involvement when police arrested her at her home Friday.
Badger once received an award for outstanding achievement as a kindergarten teacher is now facing three felony counts of poisoning.
-------------- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
