A woman caught trying to smuggle nearly half an ounce of meth into the Nebraska State Penitentiary got four years of probation and potential jail time for it Friday.
Lancaster County District Judge Robert Otte told Neosho Porter it was superdangerous behavior that elevates potential problems in "a system that is already overcrowded and overburdened."
Porter's attorney, Sandy Pollack, said Porter was a little naive and had been taken advantage of by her then-boyfriend. But Porter, who had little criminal record before this, had good support and has gotten back on her feet, he said.
Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Matthew Mellor argued that trying to get 13.94 grams into a prison is inherently violent and slightly more serious than most distribution cases because of where they were going and given the already volatile situation in prison.
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"Introducing drugs there is just a bad idea," he said.
Porter, 29, apologized and said she understood it was wrong.
"It's not a decision I'd ever decide to do again," she said.
In court records, a Nebraska State Patrol investigator said staff at the Penitentiary had gotten information that an inmate's girlfriend was going to try to smuggle drugs to him during a visit. In recorded phone calls between them they discussed how it would take place.Â
On Oct. 26, when Porter showed up for a visit, a drug dog was taken around her car while she was inside and indicated the smell of drugs.
A State Patrol investigator told her he believed she was trying to smuggle in drugs and asked her to hand them over. Porter turned over a package to a female officer.
Porter, 29, later pleaded guilty to attempted delivery of methamphetamine.
On Friday, Otte told Porter he sent another defendant to prison for several years in a case that involved less meth a day earlier.
"But I think you're headed in the right direction," he said.
And he gave Porter probation, plus 180 days in jail starting next January unless it's waived.