Felony charges filed for pot-laced muffins

DALLAS – Two students have been charged with giving a high school’s employees marijuana-spiked muffins in a senior prank that sent 18 people to the hospital and triggered an FBI and terrorism investigation.

“I had no idea of the scope of my actions,” Ian Walker, 18, said Friday, a day after he and friend Joseph Tellini surrendered to police. They could receive 10 years in prison or more if convicted of felony charges.

Walker is accused of delivering adulterated bran muffins to the teachers lounge of Tellini’s suburban school May 16 and claiming they were part of an Eagle Scout project. When Lake Highlands High School employees ate the muffins, they began complaining of nausea, lightheadedness and headaches.

Most of those sickened were quickly treated and released, but Rita Greenfield, an 86-year-old receptionist, spent two days in the hospital.

“They were just thinking it would be fun to get these teachers all silly and giggly,” Greenfield said. “I do not think of this as a prank at all. It has caused heartaches and hard feelings.”

The FBI investigated because the case involved a contamination of the food supply at a school. A joint terrorism task force found that terrorism was not involved, but determined the muffins contained marijuana and turned up a surveillance video of the delivery.

Walker, an honors student at a nearby Catholic school, and Tellini, 18, were each charged with five felony counts of assault on a public servant.