Ex-Ringgold teacher to plead guilty
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
One by one, the accused members of what is likely the largest cocaine ring ever prosecuted in Western Pennsylvania are admitting their crimes.
The latest is a former elementary school teacher.
Renee Kinder, 45, who taught in the Ringgold Area School District, indicated Friday she will plead guilty Sept. 20 to conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute as part of a ring allegedly run by Florida felon Don Juan Mendoza.
Her lawyer declined comment.
Ms. Kinder, who had been a remedial reading teacher, is the third defendant among nearly 40 to plead as the case proceeds through U.S. District Court.
Ms. Kinder had been a teacher in the Ringgold district since 2006 and had been a teacher during the time of the crimes charged in the indictment. Her lawyer, Stephen Stallings, said she left the district when the grand jury handed up the indictment.
Mendoza is a convicted drug dealer with ties to Mexican cartels who, according to the FBI, was shipping huge amounts of cocaine into Penn Hills from Atlanta and Los Angeles. In terms of sheer volume, the case represents the largest cocaine ring in the region’s history, prosecutors have said.
Two previous ring members to plead were Anthony Davis of Donora, who admitted that he let another member use his house to store guns and drugs, and drug dealer Monty Grinage of North Braddock. Grinage, a repeat felon, admitted that he was a distributor and faces at least 20 years behind bars because of his criminal history and the amount of cocaine he was dealing.
Davis, Grinage and Ms. Kinder were all named in an April indictment that targeted reputed ringleaders Mendoza and his two lieutenants, brothers Jamie and Deaubre Lightfoot.
The FBI said the ring shipped multiple kilos of cocaine in an RV and a van from Atlanta and LA to Jamie Lightfoot’s home in a secluded part of Penn Hills for distribution across the region, especially in Fayette County.
The investigation became public in November when the FBI and state police watched as members of the conspiracy arrived at Lightfoot’s house in an RV hauling 52 kilos of cocaine, 85 pounds of marijuana and an AK-47.