CHICORA — A Butler County mother is in trouble with the law after a bottle of prescription pills and a wad of cash were found in her 9-year-old daughter’s backpack at an elementary school in October.

State police say Danielle W. Kelly, 28, of Bruin stashed the drugs and money in the backpack that her child unknowingly took with her Oct. 21 to Chicora Elementary School.

Police last week charged Kelly with possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, both misdemeanors. She faces a preliminary hearing Jan. 13 at the office of District Judge Lewis Stoughton in Chicora.

Police were notified after school officials found the items that included a prescription bottle containing 10 pills. The pills were for three different medications commonly used to treat seizures and anxiety, according to court documents.

Along with the pills, police said, was $85 of rolled up currency.

School officials contacted Kelly, who drove to the school and spoke to police there.

She admitted the drugs and money were hers, documents said. She told authorities that she put them in her child’s backpack to hide them from a friend who had stayed with her two nights earlier.

“Kelly stated that some of the medication is prescribed to her,” according to a police affidavit, “but (she) had bought the others from a friend.”

She said she had withdrawn the money from her checking account the day before.