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Blair district attorney stands by sentence

Laura Pendleton-Miller said in a recent interview that “sentences in Blair County are so out of line for the crime,” particularly referring to the seven to 20 years her brother Michael received for his minor involvement in a Baltimore-based crack cocaine ring broken up in 2011.

“My brother was a great guy who had a problem,” she said. “He had dreams and aspirations. … He was trying to figure out how to stay away from drugs.”

When asked for his response to Pendleton-Miller’s comments about excessive sentences imposed by Blair County judges, Blair County District Attorney Richard A. Consiglio said he didn’t think seven to 20 years was a long sentence for selling drugs.

The attorney who prosecuted Pendleton’s case, now First Assistant District Peter Weeks, said Pendleton, like other minor players in the Corner Bar (where the cocaine was processed for sale) investigation, dubbed Operation Last Call — were given lesser sentences than those involved at higher levels.

But, he said, Pendleton had a record spanning over two decades and faced minimum guidelines of incarceration of 96-114 months.

“I’ll take issue with anyone who says drug dealing is not a violent crime,” Weeks said, referring to the recent violence in Blair County and many murders in neighboring Johnstown associated with drug crimes. “We’re creating a culture in America where the only person who has rights is the offender (as opposed to society and victims).”

In Blair County, Weeks said, first-time offenders at the bottom of the ladder get lighter sentences compared to people at the top.

The Baltimore-based drug operation, headed by Damion Floyd of Baltimore, resulted in several substantial sentences of the “higher-ups”: Floyd, 23 1/2-60 years; major dealer, Stephen Piner, 20-40 years; major dealer, Ken Piner, 36-72 years; organization manager, Jermaine Samuel, 46 1/2-103 years; manager, Natasha Miller, 15-30 years.

Two major players in the organization got off with much lighter sentences — Brian Stroh, who owned the Bar, 2 1/2-5 years, and Shonda Hicks, 15 years of probation.

Unlike Pendleton, they agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, Weeks said.

Consiglio was asked his opinion of suggestions by the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, to reduce the number of inmates in jails across America.

Suggestions such as elimination of cash bail, no mandatory minimum sentences, parole upon completion of a minimum term and reduction of those on parole, are, in the DA’s opinion, “pro-criminal, anti-law enforcement, anti-victim, anti-public safety. They want the criminals out.”

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