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Women warned about relapse at sentencing
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Amy Mitchell told a judge Friday she would choose sobriety over her heroin- addicted son.
Mitchell, 42, was answering a question from Judge Shirley J. Christian in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court just before she was sentenced to three years of probation on a third- degree felony charge of possession of heroin.
Christian asked Mitchell, who told the judge she has a full-time job and is undergoing drug and mental-health counseling, whether she would avoid people and places where heroin and heroin users are found.
The judge asked her what she would do if her son came to her one night and said the same things about staying clean to Mitchell that she was saying to the judge.
Through tears, Mitchell said she would not take him in.
“I cannot let him stay at my house,” Mitchell said.
She said her husband would probably make sure he left. She said the last time she took her son in, she ended up arrested on drug charges after she had been clean for several years.
“He’s my only son, and I took him in. But I didn’t know he would destroy my life,” Mitchell said. “I can’t take him in. That’s sad.”
Mitchell was arrested Oct. 2 by members of the Youngstown Police Vice Squad, who were serving a search warrant investigating drug activity at a home in the 100 block of Oneta Avenue on the West Side. Reports said Christopher Pope, 24, and Mitchell were inside the home. Reports said there were torn plastic bags, syringes and heroin strewn across the carpet and a chair in an upstairs bedroom. Inside they found scales, a spoon, a crack pipe, 23 strips of suboxone and $1,454 in cash, reports said.
Pope was sentenced also to probation Thursday, .
Court records show that Mitchell was jailed March 2 after she flunked a drug test. She told Judge Christian the jail sentence was a blessing in disguise because it showed her what she had to do to stay sober.
“I pray every day to God to save my life and keep me clean,” Mitchell said.
Brian Tareshawty, Mitchell’s attorney, asked the judge for probation, which was recommended by Assistant Prosecutor Mary Beth Digravio. He said his client has been sober since she was released from jail and was clean for five years until she was arrested. Tareshawty said Mitchell relapsed when her son moved in with her and started associating with Pope.
Both Pope and Mitchell’s son are undergoing drug treatment at Community Corrections Association, Tareshawty said.
Mitchell said her husband blocked all previous contacts on her phone that had to do with the drug trade, and she has a good support system. She asked for a chance to continue her treatment.
“Please give me the chance to prove to you and the court and to myself that I can do it,” Mitchell said.
Judge Christian said she was inclined to give Mitchell that chance, but she warned her that if she broke any of the terms of her three-year probation she would end up in prison. As part of her probation, Judge Christian ordered Mitchell to continue her drug and mental health treatment and to submit to regular, random drug testing. One positive test and she will go to prison, the judge said.
“There is no middle ground for you,” Judge Christian said.
Mitchell answered that she understood.