'Acid' Trip Lands One in Hospital, Another in Jail

Mount Pleasant police say a 19-year-old man is facing serious charges after he gave another man an unidentified drug over the weekend.

Shane Hefferon was charged Tuesday in Racine County Circuit Court with one felony count each of recklessly endangering safety and possession with intent to deliver marijuana. If convicted, he faces up to 16 years in jail and/or up to $35,000 in fines.

According to the criminal complaint, Mount Pleasant police and South Shore rescue were called Sunday to the 9400 block of Luann Drive for a report of a man having a "bad reaction" to a drug he took. When officers arrived, one man was holding another man who appeared to be having a seizure and hallucinating. Rescue crews administered drugs to try and calm the man down and transported him to Wheaton Franciscan St. Mary's.

Police say two witnesses on scene said another person - later identified as Hefferon - came over and used a dropper to put drops of an unknown substance in the man's nose for $15.

Investigators located Hefferon at a relative's house and took him into custody. A search of his vehicle turned up quantities of marijuana wrapped in a sweatshirt and in baggies in the trunk, a scale consistent with drug sales and about $54 cash in a cup holder, the complaint reads.

Officers say during their interview with Hefferon he admitted to purchasing a small bottle of acid for $100 from a "shady" individual at the Taco Bell by Regency Mall a few days before the incident at the home on Luann Drive. The defendant told police that he and another person visited the home Sunday and offered drops for $15 each in the noses of the people present, including the man who started seizing. 

Hefferon told police that he and his friend left the home even though they knew the man was having a bad reaction. Officers say Hefferon admitted the bottle of "acid" was at his friend's house in Union Grove so investigators traveled there to secure it and send it to the state crime lab for analysis.

When officers checked on the man's condition Sunday night, nurses told them he had a 50 percent chance of living, the complaint reads. By the time police filed their report and recommended charges to the District Attorney, the man was on a ventilator and in the Intensive Care Unit.

As of Thursday, though, Mount Pleasant police Sgt. Eric Relich said the man had been released from the hospital.

"(His) condition has improved and in fact he was recently released from the hospital. The investigation remains active at this time," he said in an email to Patch.

Hefferon remains in the Racine County Jail on a $50,000 cash bond. His preliminary hearing is Sept. 11.