Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 14, 1994 TAG: 9406210062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: VIRGINIA EDITION: STATE
SOURCE:
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
The former member of the Drug Task Force of Martinsville was led out a side door of the Franklin County Courthouse and into a waiting sheriff's office car. She ducked down in the seat as the car drove off.
Powell was a member of the task force and an assistant vice president at Crestar Bank in Martinsville when she was arrested as part of an undercover police operation. She was convicted in December 1992 on seven counts of selling cocaine to a police informant.
A jury decided that Powell had sold drugs but without the intention of making a profit. She claimed in court that she was conducting her own private undercover investigation into drugs in the area.
Her trial was moved from Martinsville to Franklin County because of pretrial publicity, and a jury there gave her three years in prison on each of the charges, although sentencing guidelines recommended that she receive no time in jail.
Powell's attorney, R.R. ``Jim'' Young, appealed to the Virginia Court of Appeals and then to the Virginia Supreme Court, arguing that Powell was unfairly punished for choosing a jury trial.
Young said parts of the sentencing guidelines are unconstitutional because a jury doesn't get to hear the guidelines before imposing a sentence.
Young said Powell admitted using cocaine and selling or giving the drug to a police informant as a favor, but that prosecutors continued to try the case as if his client were selling drugs for profit.
The Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
Powell remained free on bond during the appeals process.
Because of the length of her sentence, officials said they would attempt to place her in the state prison for women. It is possible, however, that she could be placed in a jail, said Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood, who prosecuted the case.
by CNB