FATHER BARES GRIEF AT DRUG SENTENCING

VAN WERT, Ohio - The father of a woman who fatally overdosed on morphine
last year lashed out in Van Wert County Common Pleas Court yesterday
against the person who gave the drugs to his daughter.

John Trammell told Sara Boroff of Lima he hopes she will never experience
the pain he has felt since his daughter, Lacey, 18, died June 22 after
taking six pills. He said he can't sleep at night and wants to die too.

"Sara, I hope someday when you have a child, it doesn't happen to you. It
hurts," Mr. Trammell said. "She lost her dreams - everything."

After Mr. Trammell spoke, Judge Charles Steele sentenced Boroff, 19, to six
months in the county jail. She pleaded guilty last month to a charge of
reckless homicide in Miss Trammell's death.

Judge Steele also ordered her to spend another six months in a
rehabilitation center in Lima once she is released from jail, as well as
five years of community control, 500 hours of community service, and three
years of intensive supervision.

Boroff, who was distraught over her father's death last year and stole
morphine prescribed for him from a locked cabinet in her family's home,
could have faced five years in prison.

She apologized in court before she was sentenced.

"I am truly, honestly sorry for what I did," Boroff told the judge, adding
that she had no way of knowing Miss Trammell would overdose on the drugs.

The judge said the sentence was one of the most difficult he has ever had
to consider.

He said until the crime, Boroff led a good life with friends, a job, and no
criminal record. But he said Boroff fell into substance abuse.

"As far as Lacy's family, she'll never come back to them," Judge Steele said.

The judge said he considered a punishment of community control but opted to
impose a jail sentence. He also ordered Boroff to pay $4,400 in funeral
costs to the Trammell family and another $5,000 to set up a memorial fund
in Miss Trammell's name.

He said the money will be used by the Van Wert school district to provide
programs for students there.

After the sentencing, Miss Trammell's parents said the penalty wasn't enough.

"I would have liked to have seen three years," said her mother, Sharon
Hittle. "I would like her to give me Lacy back."

She said her daughter and Boroff were acquaintances who had only known each
other for a few weeks.

Boroff's mother, Michelle, described the incident as an accident and said
nothing her daughter can do, including jail time, will bring Miss Trammell
back.

"It's not what you want. She had a very bright future. She was an honors
student," Ms. Boroff said about her daughter.

She said she understands Boroff needs to pay a penalty for the death, but
she said her daughter didn't force Miss Trammell to take the morphine. "I
think the whole responsibility shouldn't have been left on Sara's
shoulders," she said.

Ms. Boroff said her daughter was distraught after her father, Brad, died in
February, 2001. She said Boroff watched as he died from multiple melanoma
and plasma cell leukemia.

"That was hard on everybody, but it hit her the hardest. How devastating to
watch your father take his last breath," Ms. Boroff said. "But after her
Dad got sick, we saw a change in her. She became someone we didn't raise
for 18 years.