Man gets suspended sentence in fake crack cocaine case

May 12, 2010|By DON AINES

HAGERSTOWN -- A Pennsylvania man who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute fake crack cocaine was given a suspended sentence Wednesday by Washington County Circuit Judge Donald E. Beachley and ordered to leave town.

"I'll take the probation. Goodbye Hagerstown," David James Daniels, 54, said after the sentencing hearing as he waited for his attorney to drive him to a bus station.

Daniels, of 335 Main St., Bentleyville, Pa., pleaded guilty to the charge May 6. In exchange for the plea, charges of distribution of a narcotic, possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of drug paraphernalia were dropped, according to online court records.

On Wednesday, Beachley sentenced Daniels to five years in prison and suspended all but the 134 days Daniels has served since his arrest. Beachley's sentencing order also placed Daniels on three years of probation and stated that Daniels had to be on a bus by 4 p.m. and that he was to stay out of Washington County except for traveling by interstate highway.

Daniels was arrested Dec. 28, 2009, according to the statement of probable cause filed by the Washington County Narcotics Task Force. A confidential informant met Daniels in the area of Church and Jonathan streets, and Daniels told the informant he knew where to get crack cocaine, the statement said.

The informant took Daniels to South Potomac Street where Daniels retrieved a glass smoking pipe that he indicated he had stashed near a church, the statement said. The informant then took Daniels to Elgin Boulevard/Burhans Boulevard, leaving him there so that the informant could get money and an electronic monitoring device from police, the statement said.

The informant then picked up Daniels and drove him to the 300 block of North Jonathan Street, where Daniels bought the suspected crack cocaine from a man, according to the statement of probable cause. Daniels and the man who sold him the suspected cocaine were arrested, the statement said.

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