Neighbors in Casa Linda Estates say that 18-year-old Joseph Tellini, the Lake Highlands senior charged with felony assault by marijuana muffin, has been "out of control" for the last few years. They describe him as smart but undisciplined. "I believe it started as a prank," a neighbor told me. "They've never been held accountable. The parents are in la-la land."
Living in la-la-land may cost Tellini's parents sizeable attorney's fees. Yesterday the FBI North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force filed five counts of assault of a public servant with the Dallas County District Attorney's office against Tellini (alleged baker) and his buddy Ian McConnell Walker, an 18-year-old student at Bishop Lynch who was caught on camera making the muffin delivery. Nineteen Lake Highlands High School employees ate bran muffins laced with pot and got sick.
The Tellini's home, which is rambling and valued at $364,830 on Dallas tax rolls, is on a street with large lots and lots of trees; the family moved in three years ago. Neighbors would call Tellini's parents to report finding their son and his friends hiding in the bushes smoking pot or drinking alcohol. Before Tellini was kicked out of Bishop Lynch—for cheating, according to one source—neighbors called the Catholic high school to report the Tellini house as the location of an under-age drinking party. "The parents are nice," according to the neighbor, "but they would just say, 'You know how boys are,' and 'Don't worry, they'll be gone soon.'" Indeed. --Glenna Whitley
