Nesconset mom sentenced for dealing oxycodone

A Nesconset mother of two was sentenced to 26 months in federal prison Wednesday for dealing the painkiller oxycodone -- despite a tearful plea that she had learned her lesson and jail time would harm her children.

"I am so very sorry for what I have done that I cannot put into words how ashamed and saddened I feel," Joanne Connelly, 48, of 167 Southern Blvd., said in federal court in Central Islip in remarks that were haltingly delivered through tears and sobs. "I realize from the events reported in the newspapers every day, the very grave consequences that arise by the abuse of these pills.

"I started this medication for back pain and I became dependent on it and they began to cloud my judgment. . . . I know what I have done is wrong," Connelly told U.S. District Judge Sandra Feuerstein in pleading for home detention. "I ask for possible leniency to protect my children from the consequences this will have on them."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Ott argued that Connelly should be sentenced to the federal guideline range of 27 to 33 months in prison because, he said, Connelly still did not really seem to accept the fact that she had become a serious dealer who had distributed in her own community hundreds of pills to undercover agents and informants.

Feuerstein did not explain why she gave Connelly one month less than the minimum of the federal guideline range.

After the sentencing, Connelly's attorney, James O'Rourke of Hauppauge, said he was disappointed that neither he nor his client could persuade the judge to sentence her to a punishment that did not require prison time.

Ott declined to comment.

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The Connelly case began in November 2010, as part of a federal Drug Enforcement Administration investigation into the illegal diversion of painkillers on Long Island, according to court records.

That was eight months before the public's attention was sharply focused on the problem of the abuse of painkillers by David Laffer's murder of four people in a Medford pharmacy in June. David Laffer was convicted of the murders and is serving life in prison.

In recent months, DEA agents and local police have made a number of arrests related to the illegal use of oxycodone. On Long Island, DEA agents alone have arrested two doctors and a pharmacist on charges related to the illegal diversion of drugs, and raided the offices and seized the records of two other doctors.

In the Connelly case, the mother of two boys, ages 10 and 14, had previously admitted in court to distributing a total of 250 oxycodone pills between November 2010 and January 2011.

Connelly sold the drug in a crushed form that allows it to have an almost immediate effect, according to court documents.