My mind is blown. Hide your sons as well as your daughters. Mother supplied drugs, cops say By Sue Lindsay Rocky Mountain News
An Arvada woman who allegedly supplied sex, drugs and alcohol to high school boys told police she did it because she wanted to be a “cool mom,” according to an arrest affidavit.Sylvia Johnson, 40, admitted to police that she gave marijuana, methamphetamine and various kinds of alcoholic drinks to eight Arvada West High School boys at parties she hosted almost every week at her home, the document said.
One boy said he drank alcohol practically every day at her home.
Johnson also admitted having sex with five of the boys and said she used methamphetamine for “self- medication to help with her ADHD,” according to the affidavit.
"She described herself as a ‘cool mom,’ " said Detective R.J. Vander Veen in the arrest affidavit.
He said Johnson confided that "she was never popular with classmates in high school and now began ‘feeling like one of the group.’ "
The affidavit was unclear on whether any of Johnson’s children were present at the parties.
Johnson told police “she was responsible and would not allow the kids to leave the residence intoxicated,” the detective said. She explained she gave them amphetamine at her home because she could control what happened.
Johnson also admitted to knowing how old the boys were when she gave them alcohol and had sex with them, the detective said.
Johnson was arrested in December and has a preliminary hearing next month on charges that include two counts of sexual assault, two counts of distributing a controlled substance and eight counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The parties took place between October 2003 and October 2004.
Johnson could not be reached for comment. A woman who answered the phone at her home hung up when a reporter called.
Authorities became involved after one of the boys confided in his mother, who called Arvada police.
One of the boys told police he attended parties at Johnson’s home once every week or two, where she would supply vodka, rum, tequila, bourbon and beer. The boy said Johnson “poured me shots of tequila one time and I consumed seven to 10 shots in a 10-minute period.”
On another occasion, he said, he drank three-fourths of a bottle of Southern Comfort supplied by Johnson, who also performed oral sex on him.
One boy said Johnson had sex with more than one boy at a time. Johnson admitted the sexual encounters but was foggy on the details, she told police, because she was “a little tipsy from drinking,” according to the affidavit.
One boy said Johnson gave him and a friend amphetamine in November 2003 so they could help clean her house.
A boy told police he was given “McCormick’s” in exchange for doing yardwork at Johnson’s home and ran over an apple tree with a mower because he was drunk. He said Johnson permitted the intoxicated boys to drive her car to the dump to unload branches.
One boy got very emotional during his police interview and said he felt Johnson “took advantage of the kids sexually by giving them alcohol and having sex with them afterwards,” Vander Veen said.
DECEMBER 3–Police yesterday released their file in the case of Debra Lafave, the 24-year-old Florida teacher arrested earlier this year for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old boy who attended the Florida middle school where Lafave worked as a reading teacher. Included in the released records was the below Temple Terrace Police Department report of an interview with the victim, who told cops of his trysts with Lafave, who is now facing a variety of felony charges. According to the boy, whose name was redacted from the document by police, his relationship with Lafave began with a week left in the 2003-4 school year, when “she became affectionate.” The student then went on to detail encounters with Lafave in her Greco Middle School classroom, an automobile, and the woman’s Tampa-area home. At the request of investigators, he gave them a description of Lafave’s tattoos, tan lines, and private parts. He even drew a diagram of her bedroom and living room. And in a move to buttress the victim’s account, cops obtained surveillance video from a Best Buy outlet showing him in the woman’s company at the electronics store. Police released stills from that tape showing Lafave, who is wearing a short halter sundress, strolling through the store while the boy browses nearby.
