Although the strike has since been settled, an Ohio couple bothered by noisy strikers is being held on a $1 million bond after making laxative-laced cookies to give picketers.
An Ohio couple was arrested and charged with contaminating a substance for human consumption, a felony, after allegedly giving sugar cookies laced with a laxative to striking school employees.
According to CantonRep.com, Bo J. Cosens, 29, and Rachel D. Sharrock, 25, were upset with the noise created by striking Claymont City Schools employees who were standing near Claymont Primary School at 320 Trenton Ave.
The strikers are non-teaching members of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees.
According to Facbook posts that Cosens posted, he was upset at car horns honking as they would pass the picket line.
“There’s a lot of rant about OAPSE members protesting on Trenton Avenue,” Sgt. Michael Hickman of the Uhrichsville police department said. “He had made threats towards them. He mentioned also that he was going to get a gun and shoot them, and in the video as well, there was an apparent drug transaction that took place on Facebook live during this video.”
Hickman says the couple also talks in the video about a plan to send the protesters a batch of contaminated cookies.
“In this video as well, his girlfriend and him talk about mixing laxative pills with cookies and delivering them to OAPSE workers,” he says. “She’s actually holding up a package of laxative pills, and she’s popping them out of the package, crushing them up and mixing them in with the cookie batter.”
“In that video, you see him yelling out his bathroom window every time a car drives by and honks. He yells obscenities out his bathroom window, and they also start joking about how their friend delivered the cookies to the workers,” Hickman said.
After police received an anonymous tip about the Facebook videos, Hickman went to the picket line and confirmed the cookies had been delivered–but nobody had eaten them.
Hickman initially arrested Cosens for aggravated menacing and were looking for a lab to test the cookies for the laxatives.
In Cosens initial arrest, Hickman stated a large amount of marijuana, cash and drug paraphernalia was seized.
In addition to the contamination charge, the couple are also charged with complicity, disorderly conduct, and permitting drug abuse, all misdemeanors. Hickman said police will seek a felony charge against Cosens for trafficking drugs in a school zone, reported CantonRep.com.
Since their arrest, the strike that began on March 22 and had the couple so upset has been settled.
On Friday, strikers voted voted 57 to 24 to accept the Claymont Board of Education’s last, best and final contract offer.
