43
Woman: Addiction runs in the family
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Judge Elizabeth Kobly wants to stop a tradition in the family of Francine DeFrank: drug addiction.
DeFrank, 29, told the judge as she pleaded no contest in municipal court Monday to a charge of drug paraphernalia that addiction runs in her family and one sister is in the Mahoning County jail.
But the reason for the judge’s urgency is DeFrank’s 2-year-old child, the judge said.
“Your baby deserves better,” Judge Kobly said. “Your baby didn’t ask to be born. Your baby does not deserve a mother who is frying her brains on drugs, because it’s just a matter of time before I see your baby in here.”
The judge asked DeFrank if she had a sister who was just before her, and DeFrank replied that it was her sister, Hollie. She said she has another sister in the jail right now as well, but no record of that person could be found.
“Drugs does [sic] run in our family pretty bad,” Francine DeFrank said.
Judge Kobly’s jaw almost dropped when Francine DeFrank answered her about her sisters.
“Geeeez,” Judge Kobly said, drawing the word out. “That is so sad.”
Hollie DeFrank, 28, was arrested on a possession-of-heroin charge Aug. 23 in the 300 block of East Philadelphia Avenue.
Francine DeFrank told the judge she has been smoking crack since she was 21. When asked why she started then, Francine DeFrank told the judge she already was doing other drugs and latched onto crack. Her boyfriend, who is not a drug user, has custody of her child, she told the judge. She has a record in municipal court stretching back to 2006 and common pleas court to 2007.
Hollie DeFrank also has a municipal court record dating back to 2005 and cases in common pleas court in 2005 and 2007.
Francine DeFrank faces a felony charge of possession of cocaine in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court stemming from a May arrest by members of the vice squad who were serving a search warrant investigating drug activity in a home on West Earle Avenue, where she was found with cocaine. She said at the time of the arraignment that she was arrested just hours after being kicked out of a rehab facility. She said in court Monday that she does want to get better.
“I want to try again,” she said.
She was a given a sentence of 30 days in jail after Judge Kobly found her guilty. That is running concurrent to another case she was sentenced on last week. She pleaded no contest to having a crack pipe.
Francine DeFrank also was placed on probation. Part of her sentence is to attend drug counseling at Community Corrections Association. Her lawyer, Andrea Burton, told the judge now that her client has a child, there is a renewed strength on her part to complete counseling. But Judge Kobly said she wondered about that.
“That [having a child] wasn’t enough for you,” Judge Kobly said. “If you don’t stay clean, you know your child is going to grow up to be an addict.”