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  • School Aide In Hotel With Teens, Drugs Hit With Felony Charge

    POSTED: 12:42 pm EST February 25, 2008
    UPDATED: 5:27 pm EST February 26, 2008

    A woman who resigned as a Highlands Senior High School teacher's aide after police said they found her in a hotel room with drugs, alcohol and minors was arrested and charged on Tuesday morning.

    Abbie-Jane Swogger, a 34-year-old mother of two and former exotic dancer, is accused of renting a room at the Clarion Hotel, where police said they found beer, 9.5 grams of crack cocaine and teenage boys and girls on Friday.

    New Kensington police said the Natrona Heights woman is charged with felony crack cocaine possession charges, corruption of minors and possession with intent to deliver.

    During Swogger's arrest Tuesday at her home, police said the same 17-year-old boy who was at the party was found hiding in her bedroom.

    Swogger declined to comment to WTAE Channel 4 Action News while leaving the police station on Tuesday.

    She has said that she rented the hotel room with friends for a night out without her children. But she said her son showed up with friends, who refused to leave.

    "She's under an obligation not only as an adult, but as a teacher's aide to know better," said Chief Mike Klein of the Harrison Township Police Department.

    On Monday, Swogger told Channel 4 Action News that she didn't know drugs and alcohol were in the room. She added that she knew where her children were that night, but couldn't say the same for the parents of the teens who showed up.

    "I didn't serve the kids any alcohol," she said at the time. "These are all assumptions. I don't do drugs, so I have nothing to hide."

    Highlands confirmed on Tuesday that Swogger was under investigation at the school long before Friday's incident. Swogger told WTAE Channel 4 Action News that she was suspected of having sex with the 17-year-old but denied that ever happened.

    A New Kensington police report said two teenage girls who were at the party, one of them 15, left the high school early Friday. Both of them were runaways from Tarentum and Harrison Township, police said.

    Contrary to what Swogger told WTAE Channel 4, police said the girls were picked up by Swogger and driven to the party.

    The mother of one of the girls, who asked to not be identified, said she "didn't know whether (her) daughter was dead or alive."

    "Someone in that room gave my daughter marijuana," the mother said. "She did admit to that. I think she (Swogger) should get what's coming to her, however the law requires. She should get the fullest extent of punishment."

    If Swogger is convicted of possessing the cocaine, police said that alone could put her in prison for a minimum of two years.

    Harrison Township police plan to charge her with interfering with the custody of minors for allegedly driving the two girls to the party.


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