WOMAN WHOSE DAUGHTER TURNED HER IN SENTENCED

Medina mother receives 1 year in prison after teen told about drug
use

MEDINA: A Medina woman whose daughter turned her in because the teen
thought her mother had a drug problem was sentenced yesterday.

Linda Sue Martin, 41, received one year in prison for attempted
manufacturing of drugs. She was also sentenced to six months on two
other charges, permitting drug abuse and possession of drugs. Those
sentences will run concurrently with the one-year sentence.

Medina County Common Pleas Court Judge James L. Kimbler sent Martin to
the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville to serve her sentence.

Martin faced a mandatory two-year sentence if she had been convicted
for illegal manufacturing of drugs. But Medina County Prosecutor Dean
Holman amended the charge to attempted illegal manufacturing because
she was cooperative in the investigation.

The case began in February of 1999 when Martin's 14-year-old daughter
took a crack pipe to Claggett Middle School and gave it to her
counselor. The daughter told the counselor she had found the crack
pipe in a pillowcase belonging to her mother. The counselor told
school authorities, who then called police.

The daughter told police she just wanted her mother to get some
help.

No drugs were found when Martin's apartment on West Union Street was
searched, but police seized crack pipes and other paraphernalia
associated with the use and manufacture of crack cocaine. Martin
admitted to cooking up crack cocaine in the kitchen.

When her mother was arrested and it became clear she would serve time,
Martin's daughter told police she regretted reporting the drug abuse.

The daughter, now 15, was not present in the courtroom during her
mother's sentencing. She now lives with her father in Cleveland.