DEPUTIES SEIZE DRUGS, CASH.

Byline: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Deputies said Friday that they seized nearly $28,000 in cash plus $1,200 worth of rock cocaine and stolen electronic gear after going to a house looking for an assault suspect.

Deputies said they scooped rock cocaine out of a pot of oil found boiling on a hot plate in the master bedroom, near a sleeping child.

``We think they kicked the hot plate on when we got to the door and tried to destroy the evidence,'' said Sgt. Kyle Bistline, leader of Palmdale's Partners Against Crime team.

The assault suspect, who ran out the back door in his underwear, was arrested, along with another man and a woman inside the house, deputies said. The woman's three children - ages 18 months, 4 years and 5 years - were turned over to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

``There was so much illegal activity going on in that house with those kids right there in the middle of all of it,'' said Bistline.

The deputies had gone to the house in the 2200 block of East Avenue Q-6 looking for Santerous Colbert, 30, a probationer wanted on a warrant charging him with assault with a deadly weapon.

When the deputies knocked on the front door and identified themselves, a woman peeked through the front window but refused to open the door, they said. At that point, deputies watching behind the house saw Colbert run through the back door and into the yard. They arrested him.

After forcing their way into the home, deputies arrested Andrea Burns, 25, and Ronald Jones, 30.

Deputies said they were able to recover about $1,200 worth of cocaine that had been dumped into the boiling oil.

The 4-year-old boy was asleep in the bedroom with the hot plate, deputies said. An 18-month-old was sleeping in another room that contained an open bag of marijuana and a loaded gun.

Besides finding about $1,900 worth of cash, deputies said they found a bank safe-deposit box record. After getting another warrant, they went to the bank and opened the box, which contained $26,000 in cash.

The home was a Section 8 federally subsidized home rented to Burns. Investigators from the Department of Housing and Urban Development will look into whether Burns will lose her subsidy, officials said.

Burns was arrested on suspicion of cruelty to a child likely to produce great bodily injury and was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail. Jones was being held on suspicion of conspiracy and possession of cocaine base for sale in lieu of $30,000 bail.

Colbert was being held without bail on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance with a loaded firearm, the warrant for assault with a deadly weapon, and probation violations.

At the same time deputies were searching Burns' house, a second team searched a probationer's home in the 38600 block of Larkin Avenue. There, they arrested one person and found marijuana packaged for sale, a stolen handgun and $330 in cash. They also found several stolen car stereos and other electronics.

Later that evening PAC deputies arrested an 18-year-old reputed gang member with a stolen handgun at 40th Street East and Avenue R. Armando Coronado was booked on a warrant for suspicion of spouse abuse, plus suspicion of being an ex-felon in possession of a loaded firearm and discharging a firearm in public. He was being held without bail.

Investigators said Coronado may be tied to random gunfire recently in which no was hit.

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(color) Thousands of dollars in cash, rock cocaine and marijuana were found by deputies at a home in the 2200 block of East Avenue Q-6, where they arrested a man wanted on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.