Teacher held on drug suspicion

A Costa Mesa High School teacher who was on administrative leave after an arrest in April was arrested inside a Newport Beach hotel Tuesday on suspicion of drug possession, police said Wednesday.

Lisa Carlson Fertig, 39, a 10th- through 12th-grade special education teacher and literature and English teacher at Costa Mesa High School, was arrested outside of the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach early Tuesday. Newport Beach police arrested her on suspicion of possessing cocaine.

She was also arrested by Irvine police April 4 in an Irvine elementary school parking lot, less than half a mile away from her home.

Irvine police said that when they arrested her she appeared to be under the influence of a stimulant and said they found a white powdery substance on her.

Newport-Mesa School District officials put her on administrative leave later that month.

About 1:50 a.m. Tuesday, Newport Beach police approached a man “twitching uncontrollably” in the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach parking lot, 1107 Jamboree Road, said Sgt. Evan Sailor.

The man, who is Lisa Fertig’s husband, Marc, 40, admitted to possessing cocaine and showed them a black straw with cocaine in it and gave officers permission to search his hotel room, Sailor said.

Marc Fertig declined to comment.

Police found Lisa in the room, and she later admitted to having a prescription bottle in her purse that possibly had cocaine residue in it, police said.

Authorities said they found a black straw inside the bottle with a white powdery substance inside, which they said later tested positive as cocaine.

Both posted $20,000 bail and were released Tuesday night.

Lisa Fertig is on unpaid administrative leave, Newport-Mesa Unified School District spokeswoman Laura Boss said.