PALMDALE PAIR ARRESTED POLICE FIND COCAINE, $10,000 IN HOME.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Rock cocaine with a street value of about $3,000 and more than $10,000 in cash were found in a home deputies searched Wednesday after getting a tip that it was receiving lots of suspicious visitors.

Surveillance cameras watched the single-story tract home's driveway, garage, front door and a safe where the money was found, deputies said. The rock cocaine, about 1 1/4 ounce, was found hidden inside pants hanging in a closet.

``Basically, we got a tip. Someone called and said there was lots of activity at the house,'' said Sgt. Kyle Bistline, the leader of Palmdale sheriff's station's Partners Against Crime unit.

Arrested on suspicion of possession of rock cocaine for sale were Brandy Brunston, 24, a city Parks and Recreation program leader, and Michael Bridges, 24. Deputies said they were considering whether to seek child endangerment charges as well because three children, two under age 4, lived with them.

Bridges and Brunston and their children had moved into the rented house on Jenna Lane about a month ago, Bistline said. Deputies got the tip about the suspicious visitors on Monday, investigated, got a search warrant and served it Wednesday morning.

Bridges was arrested Wednesday after he drove away from the home. Brunston was arrested when she drove up as deputies were there, Bistline said.

Wednesday's arrest was Bridges' third in two months. One was in January on suspicion of driving without a valid license and the second was Monday on suspicion of drug possession after deputies got the tip about his house. He was out on bail when he was arrested Wednesday.

Deputies used a police dog to sniff out the drugs at the house. The cocaine was found inside a pair of jeans that had been slit open at a flap behind the zipper to form a hiding place. Ten or 20 other pants similarly modified were also found.

Hiding the dope in the zipper flap makes it harder for a law-enforcement officer to find it in patting down a suspect, Bistline said.

Deputies also found a Palmdale High School literature textbook hollowed out into a hiding place. It was empty but had room enough for a gun or drugs.

Deputies found a clip loaded with 9 mm bullets for a pistol, but were still looking for the gun it went to.

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4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- color) Above, a suspect sits in a patrol car outside a Jenna Lane house Wednesday where police found about $3,000 worth of rock cocaine, a pistol clip loaded with bullets and a hollowed-out Palmdale High School textbook, top. At right, Sgt. Kyle Bistline shows a pair of modified jeans in which the cocaine was found.

(4) A deputy searches a car at a Jenna Lane house where about $3,000 worth of rock cocaine was seized Wednesday, along with $10,000 cash, a hollowed-out book with room to store a gun, and a loaded clip.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer