CRANBERRY TWP — Teenage drama took a bizarre twist last month when a mother allegedly plotted to frame her daughter's former friend as a drug dealer.

Traci Pitt, 42, of Cranberry Township is charged with burglary overnight accommodation with no person present; criminal trespassing by entering a structure; manufacturing, delivery or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver; tampering with or fabricating physical evidence; and possession of a controlled substance by a person not regulated.

According to the criminal complaint, officers were contacted Oct. 8 by administrators at North Catholic High School about a suspicious phone call they received. The call from an anonymous woman indicated a 14-year-old student was selling marijuana to other students.

Administrators searched that student's backpack and found a marijuana cigarette, the complaint states. Officers spoke with the student's parents, who said they had found a similar cigarette in their garage the previous Friday.

In an interview Tuesday, the victim's mother said she did not believe the cigarette belonged to her daughter or her daughter's friends, who had stayed at the house that Friday. She said she spoke with her daughter about the discovery that night.

When she was contacted by police, the victim's mother said she had reason to believe the cigarette was planted by Pitt. The complaint states officers were able to trace the anonymous call back to Pitt, and interviewed her Oct. 10.

This is an excerpt — read the full story in Wednesday's Butler Eagle.