DRUG-BUSTER COLONEL'S WIFE GETS 5 YRS. FOR COKE RUNNING

The coke-addicted wife of a U.S. Army colonel wept on her lawyer's
shoulder and apologized for "destroying" her family yesterday as a
federal judge sentenced her to five years for smuggling drugs from
Colombia.

With her husband and two young, sobbing sons in the front row of a
Brooklyn federal courtroom, Laurie Anne Hiett told Chief Judge Edward
Korman that she was looking forward to starting her life again after
she gets out of prison.

"If I was able to understand what [smuggling drugs] was going to do to
my kids, and how it was going to destroy my husband, I would've never
done it," Mrs. Hiett, 36, said.

"I was miserable every day when I was a cocaine addict. Once I'm
through with my punishment, I'll be able to live the rest of my life
happily," she said.

"'Sorry' is the word that you use when you step on someone's toes, and
we say we're sorry when we kill someone. I'm not exactly sorry. I'm
more than that. I am ashamed."

Mrs. Hiett, who had faced up to nine years in a lockup, asked Korman
to let her start serving her sentence immediately.

On top of the prison term, Korman gave her five years of supervised
release after she's out of the slammer, and ordered her to undergo
therapy and a 500-hour drug rehab program behind bars.

Mrs. Hiett, who was indicted last August with two accused
co-conspirators, pleaded guilty in January to mailing heroin-stuffed
packages to New York from the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, where her
husband, Col. James Hiett, oversaw a $250 million-a-year anti-drug
effort.

She admitted she made two trips to Queens to pick up illicit profits
from her drug sales.

Last month, her husband - who was cleared of any involvement in the
drug trade by Army investigators - pleaded guilty to not telling
authorities what he knew about his wife's activities.

James Hiett, who faces three years in prison when he's sentenced on
June 23, would not comment yesterday.

His wife's lawyer, Paul Lazarus, asked Korman to grant Mrs. Hiett
leniency, insisting that "she's salvageable" and understands what she
did wrong.