A Feb. 3 trial date was confirmed Friday for a young man and woman accused of dealing marijuana to students at schools throughout the Temecula Valley.
Catherine Ann Hickisch and Anthony Harry Mathisen, both 19 and of Murrieta, were arrested in March 2023 following a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation.
Each is charged with two counts each of distribution of controlled substances and possession of controlled substances for sale, as well as one count of furnishing marijuana to a child under 14 years old.
During a status hearing at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta Friday, Superior Court Judge John Monterosso conferred with the prosecution and defense regarding scheduling, and attorneys for the defendants, as well as prosecutors, agreed to be prepared for proceedings at the beginning of February.
Hickisch and Mathisen are each free on $30,000 bonds.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Perez, in February 2023, deputies at the Southwest Station in French Valley initiated an investigation stemming from information that cannabis “was being sold to juveniles who attend middle and high schools throughout the city of Temecula and unincorporated French Valley.”
Investigators determined Hickisch and Mathisen were allegedly selling “vape pens containing concentrated cannabis to minors,” Perez said.
“Furthermore, it was determined Mathisen and Hickisch distributed concentrated cannabis and psilocybin — commonly referred to as mushrooms — using a mobile delivery service, identified as `AtomicClouds,”’ the sergeant said.
He did not disclose whether any of the victims suffered health complications as a result of taking the drugs.
Deputies obtained and served warrants at the defendants’ shared residence in the area of Madison Avenue and Murrieta Hot Springs Road, where “evidence related to the sales of marijuana and psilocybin was located and recovered,” Perez said.
The duo were taken into custody without incident.
Neither has prior documented felony or misdemeanor convictions in Riverside County.