Contraband possession alleged

By JOHN WHARTONStaff writer

A Lexington Park woman was released from jail last week on personal recognizance to get drug counseling as she awaits a hearing on a charge of violating her probation by illegally possessing antihistamine pills and a cigarette at the detention center.

St. Mary’s narcotics detectives charged Joy Marie Jackson, 36, with the two contraband offenses earlier this month in court papers alleging she had the cigarette and suspected diphenhydramine pills hidden on her person on July 9 at the facility. A probation agent filed a petition last week stating that Jackson, a participant in the county’s adult drug court program, had been incarcerated since June 18 as a result of testing positive for cocaine use.

Narcotics investigators reported that Jackson was on court-authorized work release from the jail, and that the 16 pills were seized from her after the law officers received information that she had the banned items concealed inside her body.

In March 2010, court papers state, Jackson pleaded guilty to a theft charge from a burglary the previous year at a Leonardtown area home where police alleged that oxycodone, hydrocodone, tramadol and skelaxin pills with a total value of $350 were stolen.

In a separate case, court papers state, accessory and drug conspiracy charges against Jackson were amended during a plea hearing to misdemeanor assault and theft offenses from a 2009 incident outside a store in California, where police alleged an armed robbery for pills took place in a vehicle that Jackson was driving. Charging papers alleged that Jackson drove the gunman from the scene and later received $30 from him.

Sentencing in both cases initially was deferred, court papers state, and later was suspended to four days served in pretrial custody, as Jackson was placed on supervised probation and enrolled in the adult drug court program.

A judge ordered last week that if Jackson is not accepted into a drug treatment program in Baltimore, she must be on pretrial supervision and submit to urinalysis, court papers state, as she awaits a hearing on the probation violation charges.

jwharton@somdnews.com