A teddy bear. A vacuum cleaner bag. A picture frame. A Crown Royal whiskey bag.

Those were some of the items that a Lawrence-based drug ring used to conceal crack cocaine and large sums of cash, according to plea agreements filed recently in U.S. District Court. Two former Lawrence residents have pleaded guilty in the case, and a third is scheduled for trial at the end of the month.

¢ Earnest C. Martin, 30, pleaded guilty in September to possession with intent to distribute 50 or more grams of crack cocaine in exchange for having other charges dropped. Martin now is asking for the plea be withdrawn, claiming his court-appointed attorney duped him into entering it.

The attorney “showed me a different plea than the one I signed,” Martin wrote to Judge John W. Lungstrum. He has a hearing scheduled for Wednesday on a motion to withdraw his plea.

¢ A co-defendant in the case, Lauren A. McGoff-Lovelady, is due to be sentenced Nov. 6 for a drug conspiracy charge. She entered a plea this summer.

Both McGoff-Lovelady and Martin face a minimum of 10 years in prison, according to court records.

¢ A third defendant in the case, Christopher L. Mumford, is scheduled to stand trial starting Oct. 31.

The case dates to 2004, when Lawrence police raided homes in the 800 block of Connecticut Street and 2100 block of Naismith Drive.

According to McGoff-Lovelady’s plea, police on Jan. 8, 2004, searched the home on Connecticut Street, where the three defendants then lived together.

Officers found items including $605 cash in a vacuum cleaner bag attached to a vacuum, a stolen 9 mm pistol and loaded magazines wrapped in a tan Nike sweatshirt, and a brown teddy bear sitting on a stereo that contained baggies of powder cocaine, crack and marijuana.

McGoff-Lovelady told officers that Martin “always hid his drugs” and that she’d known him to hide drugs in dog food bags, in his vehicle and inside air fresheners. She told officers he “cooked” powder cocaine into crack cocaine, 1/8 ounce to 1/4 ounce at a time, using baby food jars in the microwave.

She also described making a trip to Wichita at Martin’s request to buy cocaine using $2,100 cash that was concealed in a picture frame.

In October 2004, after learning that Martin was operating from the home on Naismith Drive, officers served a search warrant there. At the time, police said they recovered nine pit bulls, dog-training treadmills, dog growth supplements and three guns from the home.

Martin was arrested shortly afterward at the Ramada Inn, 2222 W. Sixth St. In his plea, he admitted that when officers found him, he had $2,379.37 in cash and about 68 grams of crack cocaine hidden in a Crown Royal bag stuffed in his pants.