Drug dealing mom gets jail time as condition of probation

A woman denied conducting a drug transaction at a youth soccer game in Stodick Park during her sentencing hearing on Tuesday.

Janie Michelle Phillips, 36, received suspended 10-27-year prison sentence on condition she serve 170 days in jail on felony counts of child abuse or neglect and sales of a controlled substance in a public park. She entered no contest pleas to the charges.

Phillips and attorney Maria Pence both disputed the accusations. On Tuesday, District Judge Tod Young pronounced her guilty of all four felonies, including two counts of child abuse, drug sales, including the enhancement for selling drugs near a public park.

In addition to the prison sentence, Young ordered that Phillips probation last 24 months. She was taken into custody at sentencing. According to jail records, she will be released in September.

“I recognize that you have made progress since these events and that you have no prior criminal history, but this is serious,” Young said.

Phillips told Young that she’d escaped an abusive relationship and started using methamphetamine to self medicate.

“I couldn’t pay my bills and for my habit so eventually I started selling so I could get high for free,” she said.

Her day job was working for Douglas County Mental Health, a state agency that prosecutor Bethany Towne pointed out deals people with drug and alcohol dependencies.

She denied that she sold drugs at soccer practice or that she used her daughter in that transaction at the park.

Prosecutor Bethany Towne called two Douglas County Sheriff’s Office investigators to the stand to refute that assertion.

Investigator Ryan Young said agents monitored the April 26, 2023, transaction and the jacket used in the transaction was actually left by the purchaser at Phillips’ apartment a few days prior.

Young said there was some sort of youth activity going on at the park but did not say it was actually a soccer game.

The transaction was for 1.7 grams of methamphetamine, Pence confirmed. Young, who is not related to the judge, couldn’t say whether there was methamphetamine in the jacket when it was left at Phillips’ apartment, but he could confirm that the purchaser had money to purchase drugs and then didn’t after the transaction.

In the five transactions, Phillips sold around 5 grams of methamphetamine, total, Pence said.

Towne pointed out that while Phillips said she was a methamphetamine addict that didn’t account for the sales of psilocybin mushrooms that were found in her apartment’s refrigerator freezer.

Hair tests on Phillips’ children tested positive for methamphetamine. Towne said that it was in places the children could reach.

Once Phillips is released from custody, she will return to Fresno, Calif., where her parents have permanent custody of the children.

Her $100,000 bail was exonerated.