H.L. Watkins Middle School teacher arrested on drug charges www.privateofficer.com
FORT PIERCE Fla April 19 2012 –– An H.L. Watkins Middle School teacher was arrested on drug charges Tuesday after an officer saw a small bag containing a white residue fall out of her pocket and the residue in and around her nostrils, according to an arrest report.
Celestine Jones Baker, 52, was booked into the St. Lucie County Jail at 2:33 p.m. Tuesday on charges of possession of cocaine and possession of drug equipment.
Baker, of Fort Pierce, was released at 9:23 p.m. after posting $15,750 bond, according to a jail spokeswoman.
Fort Pierce Police responded to the Race Trac gas station at 5870 Okeechobee Road at about 11:50 a.m. after dispatchers received an anonymous call regarding someone in a gray Dodge Ram pickup truck driving erratically.
Officer Ronald Kern watched as Baker pulled into the gas station and got out of the truck. He got out of his car to speak with her.
Baker complained that she had locked herself out of the truck and dug into her pockets, likely looking for her keys, the report said.
When she withdrew her hand from her pocket a small bag containing “white residue” fell out onto the ground.
The officer picked up the bag while Baker continued to complain about her keys.
She said she may have left them on her front passenger seat, prompting the officer to look in the car.
She was right.
The officer also spotted was another small bag with white residue in it on top of her keys, according to the report.
Kern continued to speak with Baker who had to look up at him because he was considerably taller, he wrote in the report.
Because of that he was able to see a clear view of her nostrils and spotted white residue “in and around” them.
“This and the plastic bags led me to believe she had been snorting cocaine; which is what caused her erratic driving behavior,” he wrote in the report.
While waiting for a back up officer to come and test the substance in the bags, Kern continued conversation with Baker who told him she was a “high school teacher” at H.L. Watkins.
During the conversation he observed Baker was unable to balance and her speech was “slightly slurred,” the report says.
The substance in the bag tested positive for cocaine.
H.L. Watkins Middle School is located on MacArthur Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens.
Baker has been employed with the district since 2004.
