2 enter pleas on drug charges

Two Leesburg women, in unrelated cases, have entered pleas in Highland County Common Pleas Court to charges filed after it was alleged they did drugs during their pregnancies.

Astasia Clemons, of Leesburg, was indicted in January on two counts of corrupting another with drugs, felonies of the second degree, after it was alleged that she took drugs while she was pregnant.

On Friday, Clemons pleaded no contest to one count of corrupting another with drugs. Earlier in the week, Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss partially granted and partially overruled a motion to dismiss in the case after attorney Conrad Curren argued that charges of corrupting another with drugs were “invalid” because his client was pregnant at the time of the crime, and the victim in the case was not a “person.”

Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins argued that the statute regarding corrupting another with drugs states that it is “by any means, to administer or to furnish to another or induce or cause another to use a controlled substance with purpose to cause serious physical harm to the other person, or with purpose to cause the other person to become drug dependent,” and that the definition of “another” could be applied as the definition of “person.”

However, regarding the second count, Coss said there was an exception in that statute that specified that it was to not be applied to pregnant women. He dismissed the second count.

On Friday, Clemons entered the no contest plea, and was sentenced to two years in prison. Coss ordered her to serve it consecutive to another case in which she was sentenced to 15 months on a parole violation.

Collins said that by entering the no contest plea, Clemons can file an appeal in the case.

In an unrelated case, Bobbie Jo Mahaffey pleaded guilty on April 5 to an amended charge of attempted corrupting another with drugs. Mahaffey had been indicted in February on two counts of corrupting another with drugs, felonies of the second degree, after it was alleged she did drugs while pregnant.

Mahaffey was represented by attorney Lee Koogler.

A pre-sentence investigation has been ordered, and a sentencing hearing scheduled for May 5.