Klegman sentenced

By Jane Beathard

Staff Writer

Despite a lack of criminal history and emotional pleas of leniency from her attorney and family members, Precious M. Klegman will spend up to a year in prison for arranging illegal sales of prescription painkillers last summer.

Klegman, 20, was living at 83 Cedarwood Lane in the Green Meadows Mobile Home Park on state Route 29 when she led confidential informants on the payroll of the Madison County Drug Task Force to friends and neighbors selling drugs that were allegedly stolen from a Mechanicsburg pharmacy.

In September, she was charged in Madison County Common Pleas Court with 11 counts of trafficking Percocet (Oxycodone) and morphine, following a “sweep” of local dealers. She pleaded guilty in November to six of those counts.

Earlier this month, Klegman testified at the jury trial of Dustin McHenry and admitted to arranging a drug deal between McHenry and an informant on June 12. McHenry was later convicted of a trafficking charge.

On Thursday, defense attorney Sarah Schregardus asked Judge Robert D. Nichols for a probationary or minimum sentence for Klegman.

Schregardus noted her client’s lack of criminal history and said Klegman is successfully avoiding past activities and associations.

“She knows what she did wrong,” Schregardus said. “She has not gone back to her old life.”

A pre-sentence investigation showed Klegman began drinking at age 16, then eventually graduated to using prescription painkillers. Independent attempts to refrain from drug use made Klegman ill.

Assistant county prosecutor Eamon Costello admitted Klegman was candid in testifying against McHenry and noted his office made no promises in exchange for her cooperation.

Nichols agreed Klegman gained nothing financially from the drug sales she arranged. However, the judge said her addiction was so severe it would likely lead to future criminal behavior.

He said Klegman’s family sent numerous letters of support to the court.

“Those letters are not unlike what we see time after time in these cases,” Nichols said.

He sentenced the woman to a year in prison, saying the number and severity of charges against Klegman outweighed all pleas for probation.

However, he agreed to delay the start of Klegman’s sentence until Jan. 22 and said he will not oppose her early release to the West Central Community Correctional Facility in Marysville for drug treatment.