29-year-old Bo Cosens and 25-year-old Rachel Sharrock are accused of making a batch of laxative-laced cookies and having them delivered to a group of Claymont picketers. (Submitted)

Uhrichsville, Ohio - A Trenton Avenue couple is facing felony charges over a batch of sugar cookies delivered to a group of union picketers.

Uhrichsville Police Sgt. Mike Hickman says 29-year-old Bo Cosens and 25-year-old Rachel Sharrock were both arrested Monday on a felony warrant for contaminating a substance for human consumption. He says the arrests are the result of an investigation that began when they received an anonymous tip about a video posted on Cosens’ Facebook page. 

“There’s a lot of rant about OAPSE members protesting on Trenton Avenue. He had made threats towards them. He mentioned also that he was going to get a gun and shoot them, and in the video as well there was an apparent drug transaction that took place on Facebook live during this video,” he says.

Hickman says the couple also talks in the video about a plan to send the protestors a batch of contaminated cookies. 

“In this video as well, his girlfriend and him talk about mixing laxative pills with cookies and delivering them to OAPSE workers,” he says. “She’s actually holding up a package of laxative pills, and she’s popping them out of the package, crushing them up and mixing them in with the cookie batter.”

Hickman says they later found a second video where the couple talks about delivering the cookies.

“In that video you see him yelling out his bathroom window every time a car drives by and honks. He yells obscenities out his bathroom window, and they also start joking about how their friend delivered the cookies to the workers,” he says.

Hickman says he later spoke to the union members who confirmed that the cookies were delivered but nobody ate them. 

“They still had the plate of cookies, and I was able to confiscate them, and we’re currently looking for a lab to send the cookies in for testing to confirm that, in fact, that those have laxatives in them,” he says.

Hickman says Cosens was initially arrested Thursday and charged with aggravated menacing. He says he was held at the Tuscarawas County Jail until Monday when the judge had to release him. 

The couple appeared in Southern District Court the following day for arraignment, and Judge Brad Hillyer ordered them both held on a million dollar bond with a 10 percent feature. They are also charged with complicity, disorderly conduct, and permitting drug abuse, all misdemeanors. Hickman says they will also be seeking an additional felony charge against Cosens for trafficking drugs in a school zone. 

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