Big Island teacher will face drug trial
The teacher of special education is facing drug charges
HILO » Police executing a search warrant at the apartment of Hilo special-education teacher Lynn Dionise on April 29 found 6.8 grams of crystal methamphetamine and more than $13,000 in cash inside a safe, police officers testified yesterday during a preliminary hearing.
Dionise, 51, was placed on paid leave from her job at Keaukaha Elementary School. Deputy Prosecutor Jason Skier said there is no link between drug charges against Dionise and her employment.
She is free on $20,250 bail.
Dionise is charged with trafficking methamphetamine; possessing more than one-eighth of an ounce of the drug; possessing plastic drug packets and notes on alleged drug sales, considered narcotic paraphernalia; and possession of a small amount of marijuana, a petty misdemeanor.
Dionise was arrested before the search warrant was executed.
Defense attorney Francis Alcain suggested to District Judge Barbara Takase that possession of four tiny bags of methamphetamine might merely indicate that Dionise was a drug user. But Deputy Prosecutor Jason Skier said the large amount of cash found with the drugs showed she was selling them.
Takase found cause to send the case to Circuit Court for trial. An arraignment will be held June 20.