Woman sentenced for forging prescription
WORTHINGTON — A former Worthington resident who currently lives in South Dakota was sentenced to spend 60 days in jail Monday after a conviction for aggravated forgery and fifth-degree controlled substance procurement by fraud.
WORTHINGTON — A former Worthington resident who currently lives in South Dakota was sentenced to spend 60 days in jail Monday after a conviction for aggravated forgery and fifth-degree controlled substance procurement by fraud.
Pamela Elizabeth Carey, also known as Pamela Elizabeth Chuol, 42, was convicted by a jury after a one-day trial in May. After the trial, the judge ordered a presentence investigation (PSI) be done by the probation department. The department recommended a stay of sentence and unsupervised probation.
“The PSI is pretty much useless,” Nobles County Assistant Attorney Kimberly Pehrson told Judge Jeffrey Flynn. “It basically asks for no consequences because they don’t want to deal with out-of-state probation.”
The state, she added, does not feel as though a person should be rewarded with no consequences after going through the expense and trouble of having a trial, complete with several witnesses.
“The PSI is of value because it outlines mental health and physical issues,” countered public defender Terry Vajgrt, adding that putting Carey on supervised probation was not worth the expenditure of resources. “We are dealing with someone with a diminished capacity here, and a diminished ability to work with probation.”
Vajgrt told Flynn Carey and her daughter plan to move back to Tennessee, and there would be no value to the public to have Carey on supervised probation.
Flynn told Carey he saw merit on what both attorneys had to say, and if Carey’s mental illness had prompted her to forge a prescription, that should be taken into account.
“But I don’t think that had a thing to do with this,” Flynn added after flipping through Carey’s file.
Flynn stayed the sentence of 12 months and one day on the condition Carey serve 60 days in jail, beginning right away, and five years of probation.
“If you can bring documented proof you are moving to Tennessee, you can petition the court to be released August 3,” Flynn told Carey. “If you move, your probation can be unsupervised, but if you return to Minnesota, it will be supervised, plus you will serve 100 hours of community service.”
Tags: news, worthington, woman, prescription, forge, crime
More from around the web
RSS Feeds