<p>I don’t know whether to be horrified or feel sorry for this guy</p>
<p>[Student</a> will face cocaine charges | Altoona Mirror](<a href=“http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/507111.html?nav=742]Student”>http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/507111.html?nav=742)</p>
<p><<police said=“” conforti=“” told=“” officers=“” he=“” had=“” to=“” sell=“” drugs=“” because=“” his=“” mother’s=“” poor=“” credit=“” prohibited=“” him=“” from=“” obtaining=“” student=“” loans.=“”>></police></p>
<p>A Penn State Altoona business student was earning his way through college by selling cocaine, according to police charges filed Thursday.</p>
<p>The charges against Michael A. Conforti, 20, of Hackettstown, N.J., came in the aftermath of an April 21 sweep by the Blair County Drug Task Force and Logan Township police in which 10 students were arrested for drug sales.</p>
<p>Most of the sales involved marijuana, but police found a stash of cocaine, ecstasy and LSD and $3,400 at Conforti’s Altoona RD 4 home on Woomer Road near the campus, where he and two other students resided.</p>
<p>He initially was charged with three cocaine sales to a confidential informant working with the task force.</p>
<p>When Conforti appeared Thursday before Magisterial District Judge Steven Jackson at Altoona Central Court for a preliminary hearing, he was hit with a fourth set of charges, including possession with intent to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia.</p>
<p>Conforti’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Karen Rector, asked that her client’s preliminary hearing be continued, possibly until June 9, so that all four sets of offenses can be heard at once.</p>
<p>Rector had no comment on Conforti’s appearance before Jackson, saying she didn’t know the specifics of the charges.</p>
<p>But Rector said Conforti was a straight-A student.</p>
<p>Conforti was resorting to drug sales to attend college, according to police documents filed in the case Thursday.</p>
<p>While executing a search warrant, police found suspected cocaine and other drugs; $3,490 in cash, including proceeds from the confidential informant’s owe sheets; a switchblade knife; a grinder for the marijuana; and razor blades in the Woomer Road home.</p>
<p>Police said Conforti told officers he had to sell drugs because his mother’s poor credit prohibited him from obtaining student loans.</p>
<p>Conforti initially was placed in Blair County Prison in lieu of $30,000 straight bail, but he has been freed because his girlfriend’s mother put up her house to ensure his appearance for future court hearings.</p>
<p>The house, however, covered only the first three charges against Conforti.</p>
<p>Conforti’s attorney asked that no new bail be added for the fourth set of charges.</p>
<p>Jackson agreed, imposing bail of $10,000 unsecured on the new charges.</p>