Gloucester District Court: Woman, 48, gets jail on cocaine charges

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January 31, 2013

Gloucester District Court: Woman, 48, gets jail on cocaine charges

Gloucester District Court

By Marjorie Nesin Staff Writer The Gloucester Daily Times Thu Jan 31, 2013, 12:00 AM EST

GLOUCESTER — A 48-year-old Smith Street woman will spend about 17 months in jail after Judge Joseph Jennings found her guilty of cocaine possession at a pretrial hearing Monday.

Maria Manning was arrested last October after police searched her home. Police said Manning then confessed to buying half-ounce quantities of cocaine and breaking that up into smaller portions that she would resell from her Smith Street home, according to a police report.

Jennings sentenced Manning to 21 months in jail with 112 days credited for the cocaine possession charge.

Manning had also been charged with possession of Class B drugs in prior cases. An additional Class B drug possession charge leveled against Manning in this case, and a charge of committing a drug violation near a school or park were both dismissed at the request of the Commonwealth on failure to prosecute.

Jason Lane, a 29-year-old Main Street resident, will pay $150 in fees for a suspended license charge that was continued without a finding Monday.

Lane admitted to sufficient facts in the case of his April arrest, when he was accused of driving with a suspended license in the Walgreens parking lot. A charge of resisting arrest against Lane in another case was continued without a finding until July, and Lane will pay $50 in fees for the resisting arrest charge after the judge found he admitted to sufficient facts to warrant a guilty finding.

Lane had been charged with resisting arrest after he pulled away from an officer who was trying to handcuff him last March, according to a police report.

The officer had decided to arrest Lane after Lane refused to provide his license or exit his vehicle until the officer told him why he had been stopped, according to a police report. The officer had stopped Lane for driving with only one license plate on his vehicle, but Lane was found not responsible on that charge. Another charge of Lane refusing to produce his license was dismissed at the Commonwealth’s request.

A 48-year-old Spring Street woman admitted to sufficient facts surrounding charges of driving an uninsured vehicle and driving a vehicle with a suspended registration in court Tuesday, but Judge Jennings ordered her case continued to October without a finding.

Maryan Picard faced those charges and a charge of not having an inspection sticker, for which she was found not responsible, after state police stopped her on Washington Street in December.

A 24-year-old West Newton woman charged with speeding and driving a vehicle with a suspended registration will pay a $230 fine for speeding, but saw the suspended registration charge dismissed at a pretrial hearing Tuesday.

Janine Alston faced these charges after police stopped her in December for driving 78 miles per hour in a 55-mile-per-hour zone on Route 128 North, according to a police report. Police said Alston had been driving her mother’s car, but she was aware the vehicle’s registration had been suspended. Alston was found not responsible for a lights violation charge stemming from the same stop.

Marjorie Nesin can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3451, or at mnesin@gloucestertimes.com.