A local woman who was caught internally transporting about 39 grams of heroin worth about $39,000 to Juneau last year was sentenced Thursday in Juneau Superior Court.
Madelyn Brooks, 22, was sentenced to seven years in prison with six years suspended, leaving one year to serve.
In accordance with a plea agreement, however, that year to serve was converted into credit for time already spent at a rehabilitation center. That means there was no jail sentence.
Defense attorney Julie Willoughby hailed her client as one of the few success stories and said Brooks kicked her 2-gram a day habit at a rehab center called A Life Worth Living in Fort Collins, Colo. Brooks completed that program and now works and lives there, Willoughby told the judge.
“I’d like to say that actions speak louder than words,” Willoughby said. “We’re talking about someone who followed-up.”
According to charging documents, local and federal law enforcement intercepted Brooks Valentine’s Day 2011 at the Juneau International Airport on suspicion of transporting heroin. She was flying back to Juneau from Portland.
A Juneau Police Department detective, who obtained a search warrant, seized Brooks’ backpack and iPhone. He found a burnt tinfoil with residue used to smoke drugs.
A police K-9 then showed interest in a roll of electrical tape in her backbag, which led investigators to believe she was smuggling drugs internally. She was taken to Bartlett Regional Hospital for an X-ray to see if there were any objects inside her.
Brooks then admitted she was carrying heroin inside her body, and agreed to remove the heroin on her own.
She made multiple attempts to do so, but was not successful. Brooks was transported to X-ray by emergency room staff and they observed a round object in her pelvic area. It was extracted via a medical procedure and found to be a ball of electrical tape containing heroin.
Brooks admitted to police that she probably smoked about two grams of heroin a day, and that the trip was a dry drop wherein she picked up heroin in Portland. She said she’s done it several times before. The heroin usually costs between $1,000 and $1,500 per ounce, and is cut up into .2 gram quantities, which is sold for about $140.
She was indicted by a grand jury a few days later on two counts of second-degree drug misconduct, a class ‘A’ felony, for knowingly possessing with the intent to deliver or manufacture heroin and oxycodone. The oxycodone charge stems from a Nov. 23, 2010 arrest.
Brooks pleaded guilty in September to a reduced charge of attempted second-degree drug misconduct, a felony. She admitted to two sentencing aggravators for importing drugs and most serious conduct.
The oxycodone charge was dismissed.
On Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Angie Kemp said the crime was serious and Brooks is catching a break by avoiding several years in prison through the plea agreement.
“But what she needs to remember is that she has a lot of jail time hanging over her head, and it’s going to be a lifelong battle for her,” Kemp said.
Kemp said the agreement was appropriate in light of the fact that it was Brook’s first felony conviction, her young age and her ability to complete the rehab program.
Brooks will be required to be on strict supervised probation for five years and to pay restitution for the $1,580 medical bill and $480 in drug buy money in the oxycodone case.
Judge Philip Pallenberg told Brooks, who declined to address the court, that he hopes she continues on the path she’s on.
“Everybody who comes into this court with multiple felony convictions and repeated brushes with the law and convictions for drug involvement was once a young person getting in trouble for the first time,” he warned. “ “ ... And each of those people had an opportunity to turn from that path and they chose not to or weren’t able to take advantage of the opportunity to turn to a better path. You’ve got that opportunity and you’re making that turn and I hope it continues.”
Pallenberg told Brooks he sentenced a woman earlier in the week to serve seven years in prison for dealing cocaine, oxycodone and other drugs. And that was for drugs with much smaller quantities than what Brooks was involved in, Pallenberg noted.
The only difference was that woman had prior felony convictions, and Brooks did not.
“At one time she was in the place where you are now, being sentenced on her first felony,” he said. “I hope that you’re not in the place later on where she is now.”
Pallenberg said he could not ignore the seriousness of the crime. He said he could not just consider Brooks’ rehabilitation when accepting the sentence, but what would deter other people from doing the same thing and to address community condemnation.
“Six years of suspended time is a lot of suspended time,” he said. “If things don’t work out and you relapse and there are significant probation violations, there’s still a potential that you’d do a lot of prison time. So while the jail sentence of time to serve is not long in the context of seriousness of the offense, the amount of suspended time is, and I’m satisfied that that meets the goals of deterrence and community condemnation.”
• Contact reporter Emily Russo Miller at 523-2263 or at emily.miller@juneauempire.com.
Comments (25)
Add commentShe should have done time -- in jail, not rehab
While I commend her for kicking her heroin habit, there were still several times she brought heroin here into our community. "She said she'd done it several times before" means she brought it and probably sold it to someone else creating more addicts. I seriously doubt she intended to smoke all $39,000 worth of the stuff herself.
And being in rehab a year isn't punishment. She should have gotten a taste of jail.
We as a community need to make a statement that if you sell heroin, oxy, meth or cocaine in our community you WILL do jail time.
Judge not
Why, exactly, does it have to be jail? She wasn't free to leave her rehab -- I think that's pretty much like jail. They took her from jail to go there; it's not like she didn't spend any time "behind bars". I think the goal has been reached here; she now has a chance to be a positive force in a community instead of a drain on the state, and will no longer be selling drugs there. I've noticed your comments before, Jo M., and it seems like you're really eager to mete out punishments to everyone. Take a look at the picture you have along with your profile, and think about what He might have advocated instead.
Pure Profit
Did the article get the numbers right?
An ounce for $1,000. 28 grams per ounce. Cut into .2 gram doses, sold for $140.
After airfare, that yields a profit of over $17,000, on a $1,000 investment.
And we think we're going to stop drug trafficking in Juneau? Ha!
Long term Rehab
My life has been torn apart by drugs and those who use them. There is not a day that goes by I am not reminded of the damage they do.
That being said, I believe in long term rehab, a year or longer of inpatient treatment. I believe this young woman has a fighting chance. She is living and working in CO now, but came here for sentencing. Knowing she might be stuck here for a while. That shows a person in recovery, a person trying to do right and do better.
My prayers for your continued recovery.
The Trend
Lethal Narcotics is what this young woman was spreading around our town. For every grain she distributed,someone else could of or DID die by her hand. All the rehab in the world will not release her victim's bondage. Anyone who had the money to pay lost their worth too.
I like Angie Kemp and Judge Pallenburg but if they continue to bend the laws to make it easy on offenders like this one,it might be time to end this trend of rehab over JAIL! I'll be watching to see if this pro drug dealer/mule tows the line. Hope her P.O. watches too...
OH please!!!
Why does it have to be jail?!?!?! I think rehab is a lot more effective than jail! Why shouldn't we give her a fighting chance?! Give her a damn break! I am happy for this girl and am glad they gave her a chance to get her life back. She still has the time hanging over her head, which I hope is enough to keep her on the right track. Congrats Madelyn, keep it up!
choices
The thing is, we all have choices to make. It is not solely due to the actions of this young woman that others have made and continue to make the bad choice to take drugs. She will still be paying for her decisions for a long time to come, as will those others. I hope she continues on the path she has presently chosen, and I hope others will follow in her footsteps to recovery. We are all responsible for our own decisions. As someone else pointed out, I think the lure of monetary gain to support a habit over paying attention to the messages from the frontal lobe is going to win for some, no matter what the consequences for getting caught. The only reason this woman is succeeding right now is because those who care about her did not abandon her and got her the help she needed. I don't thing she's "towing" the line anywhere; I think she's on track for "toeing" that line. I'm praying for her also.
PP:
Move down a couple articles “Heroin trafficker sentenced” and read the post from JO, he is one of your friends is he not? Why not chastise him?
Sorry
Placed that in the wrong article.
victims vs. user
(snickering at Milspec). How difficult is it, milly?
We forget something here. This woman brought $39,000 worth of heroin into Juneau. Had she not been caught, most of that likely would have hit the streets. I seriously doubt she would have consumed that all herself.
And dealing creates victims. Imagine if your kid got a hold of what she was transporting. You'd be calling for her head in the guillotine as opposed to patting her on the back for beating her addiction.
I am ALL FOR rehab for users. But not for dealers. There is a huge difference.
I simply want Juneau's message to be "If you deal drugs here, you WILL go to prison" instead of "if you deal drugs here, you'll get lengthy probation."
Where is the punishment for this crime? There is none.
And I'm one of the biggest bleeding heart liberal in here. But not when it comes to those who bring heroin, meth, cocaine or oxy into our community.
@Jo: I would argue that in
@Jo: I would argue that in terms of drug use, victims create victims. Drug dealers don't hold a gun to people's heads and force them to buy their drugs.
They certainly take advantage of addicts, but compare to the alcoholic. Are liquor stores and bartenders to blame for a person's alcoholism? Of course not. And this is, actually, the exact same type of situation, except with an illegal substance.
@Jo and all the other haters
As a former user/seller in recovery let me just say that maybe the people who never did drugs or whatever really just have not a clue about the drug scene whatsoever. Obviously they just read articles but never really experience it from maybe family or first hand. I don't care if your a user or a seller. At one time or another YOU WILL SELL/DISTRIBUTE drugs to feed/support your addiction...addicts will run out of money eventually, trust me. It doesn't make you any more or less of a bad person. Some people get caught, some don't, it's really just a matter of time. People really just disgust me on these forums.
@Jo
I understand your passion, I do. I think you have been closer than some would give you credit for. That is usually what makes us passionate.
I just don't think jail/prison works here. We have tried the lock up approach for decades and it just keeps escalating.
In this case she admits to being an addict. That is why I feel rehab is the right approach. If I understand the article she was in rehab for a year. I believe any rehab shorter than a year is useless. She came back for sentencing, that speaks volumes. I am becoming aware that jumping state lines can be a perfect way to escape punishement.
I have watched a junkie go to jail and network and find more dealers. Think they found new cook buddies too. Pre Trial rehab was a 30day joke. First FB post was a plea to former cellmate for call. A look at charges show that individual charged with trafficking.
I am by no means justifying addicts or dealers. I really don't think that there is anything more narcassitic than a junkie. A true dealer with no usage whatsoever... that may just be what evil looks like.
Everyone misunderstands my position on this
Look, I am ALL IN FAVOR of rehab for drug users, alcoholics, nicotine addicts. I really am!
And if someone is caught with a SMALL amount of heroin, weed, meth, whatever, it does society no good to throw them in prison for something that could be better handled with rehab.
But $39,000 is not a small amount! That alone implies that she was distributing. She's an admitted user. Fine. Get her rehab. But what about the multiple trips she made? You have to wonder how many trips she made and just how much heroin she brought to our city.
This is a crime. She is not the victim.
@ my friend PP: You are correct. Bartenders should not be held accountable for alcoholics they serve. However, that was a poor comparison for many reasons. Buying one drink in a bar rarely makes a person an addict. Buying one hit of heroin usually does because heroin is extremely addictive even with just one hit.
As such, she was a definite threat to our community. She deserved rehab AND jail time as a deterrent to engage in this behavior again.
@AK4611
It might surprise you to know that I've been around drug environments in my younger days. By the grace of God, I was never addicted, but many friends and family were/are. I have nothing but compassion for drug addicts. It can happen to anyone. This does not make them bad people as you alluded to. I have visited friends in rehab for crack addiction. I've tried to be a friend to any friend who has an addiction because and addiction is a disease.
However, when someone brings in $39,000 of dangerous drugs into my community multiple times, the magnitude of the situation changes. Such people are threats to our society. It moves beyond simply being an addict to being a threat.
I wish her the absolute best with her recovery. But I hope she leaves Juneau and never returns.
Jo, I do hate to be a nit,
Jo, I do hate to be a nit, but what they taught us in school about being addicted by just one hit--it's not true. It is possible to experience withdrawal symptoms from one "hit" of a substance (ever had a hangover when you only had one drink the previous night? I HAVE! It was weird), but addiction is a psychological process, and takes more than one "hit" to establish itself. That's why quitting smoking is hard. The withdrawal symptoms end long before the psychological cravings do.
And in fact, nicotine has been shown to be more addictive than any opiate. I know you're anti-tobacco, but I also know you place the blame squarely on the smokers, not the grocery stores that sell them cigarettes.
I noticed that a lot of you
I noticed that a lot of you have been slamming Jo Mc on this one. One poster said "Give her a break?" Well, she got a break. Let's hope she takes advantage of the break she was given.
Keeping your opinions to yourself...
I have more than just a few words to say to all of the people that commented on this article and were a bit negative to say the least... You say that people who deal drugs deserve jail time but users deserve rehab? Excuse me but why do you think they started selling those drugs in the first place? How do you think they got caught up in it? To support their habit! I guarantee that most of you haven't dealt with a serious addiction problem, especially to a hard drug such a heroin. It is a DISEASE. For those of you who like to call people with addictions "low lives" or a "burden" to our community, maybe you should know what you are talking about before posting your comments and being judgemental. If you haven't been there, KEEP YOUR MOUTHS SHUT. Kicking an addiction and maintaining sobriety is one of the hardest things to accomplish and stick to. Most of the people in our jails are there for drug and alcohol related offenses and instead of court ordering treatment and trying to get them help, they sentence them to flat time and just expect that to fix everything. Sorry, but you're just setting them up for failure. Once they get out, about 75% of them return to their old ways and end up back in the system. It is a very sad, but true fact. I promise that all of you have your skeletons and secrets so before you start pointing fingers, make sure your hands are clean! I congratulate Ms. Brooks and her amazing recovery and wish her the best of luck. It's such an incredible thing to see someone come from such a terrible place in their life and come out on top!
Don't Judge, Thanks for the
Don't Judge,
Thanks for the rant. It was amusing. If you feel offended by some of the posts on this forum, I have a really simple solution for you. Don't read the forum. This forum is for people to post their opinions. Therefore, occasionally you might run across an opinion that gets under your skin a little. If you want to avoid reading or hearing other folks' opinions, stay away from things that expose you to them.
I hope the young lady in this article will be able to straighten her life out. However, some of the people whose names appear in the Empire over drug issues are just what they get called by posters on this forum, "low-lifes."
Have a great day!
More people need to heed the
More people need to heed the advice of Mr. Mackey.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G4HxrVx20A
$39K of heroin up your hoohoo but not a day in jail
Another idiot steals a truck, causes damages less than half of that dollar amount and he gets 8 years.
Love to hear how someone who muled $39K of heroin is a "success" story. Forget about hardworking people who graduate, pay for their own college and homes without gov subsidies/handouts. "Success" is a drug mule who got caught and was let off without a day in prison.
Only in Alaska. The place criminals dream about.
Here...obtain some knowlege on addiction/crime
This is for all you judging fools:
---> "For many, negative thinking is a habit. Which over time, becomes an addiction... A lot of people suffer from this disease because negative thinking is addictive to each of the Big Three -- the mind, the body, and the emotions. If one doesn't get you, the others are waiting in the wings."
-Peter McWilliams
Now go positive think yourself. bye.
This is for those who see this in the real light of the matter:
---> LONG TERM TREATMENT is the only way we give any criminal or non-criminal addict a chance to live a life worth living and to be able to make amends for their past. Getting sober and living sober are two different things. All past users who have obtained sobriety, who have learned how to make better decisions about drug use, and learned why they developed their addiction in the first place usually use those tools to help fellow addicts to recover. Addiction is not cured by spending years in jail. Let's just do away with jail for addicts. Its a crime school! The only thing learned in jail is how to "do it better next time" they have no skill learning or mental help to find why they are the way they are. Rather then an addict spending 6 years in jail, why not 6 years in treatment?
Addicts don't start out addicted. For many reasons someone will begin using and the "high" feels better then any other junk in their life, so they continue and addiction creeps in.
Our bodies are part of what makes us human. Our mind/thoughts make us more human. Our heart/feelings make us even more human. Our Spirit/Love makes us most human.
Once addicted you are no longer the person you were before drugs took over. You don't have any thoughts other then those on your next "fix". You are consumed by your own selfishness,so you no longer have a heart. You WILL do anything, absolutely anything to get your drugs. (which is obviously what was happening with Madelyn)
---> Heroin addiction is a steadily growing problem that affects many people in the United States. A 2003 national survey revealed that 3.7 million people used heroin at some time during the course of their lives. Five percent of those people were habitual users. Two percent of those habitual users were still in high school.
In 2012, the number of heroin users has not decreased at all.
Individuals addicted to heroin spend approximately $100 per day on their problem. A small majority of the young unemployed population will resort to committing crimes to feed their habits.
---> "There is no cookie cutter heroin user. In fact, many of heroin’s newest addicts are in their teens or early 20s; many also come from middle- or upper-middle-class suburban families.
Tolerance to heroin develops with regular use so after a short time, more heroin is needed to produce the same level of intensity. This results in addiction." -http://www.dosomething.org (so its possible her addiction was at such a high tolerance, that she needed such an amount stated, for her personal use)
-->Painkillers/Opiates: For years, opiates have been seen as a medicinal approach to cure a variety of pain and digestion issues. Typically found in the form of prescription painkillers like Oxycontin and Percocet as well as heroin. Opiates generate dependence in very short order – even when consumed infrequently. Side effects tend to be more severe versions of what the drug was originally intended to nullify (pains & digestion issues). With prolonged use, opiates can create severe infections and violent withdrawal symptoms.
-->"Recovery from addiction requires hard work, a proper attitude and learning skills to stay sober, not drinking alcohol or using other drugs. Successful drug recovery or alcohol recovery involves changing attitudes, acquiring knowledge, and developing skills to meet the many challenges of sobriety."
-Dennis Daley, PhD
Congratulations Madelyn! On your success in completing the treatment program, choosing to become an employee so that you may help others overcome addiction, and for never denying your crime or your addiction!
You have your whole life ahead of you and with continuing your path of recovery you will go further then you could ever think possible.
hang her
dont let her go ..and the guy that stold the breeze inn truck got seven yrs...what the hewl is going on....how stupid....is it just me. sumbuddy had a cup of coffee with the judge..ya think.