A Hungarian woman linked through her former boyfriend to a major marijuana operation on the Big Island won't go to prison, following a government motion to give her credit for cooperation. Woman avoids prison
in Big Isle drug caseU.S. District Judge Alan Kay yesterday sentenced Monika Reich to five years of probation after agreeing that she provided substantial assistance to authorities to bring down what Kay described as a "sophisticated operation" involving almost 3,000 plants.
"The court is going to give you a second chance," Kay said to Reich as her husband and 4-month-old daughter sat in the courtroom.
Reich pleaded guilty to "misprison of felony," an offense intended for those who know about criminal activities, but don't report them.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Sorenson said Reich was the girlfriend of Josef Santa, one of four defendants who pleaded guilty to conspiring to grow marijuana on 14 acres. Authorities seized 2,948 plants, 941 stalks and 11.9 pounds of dried marijuana on Oct. 23, 1995.
Sorenson said Reich knew about the marijuana operation and manicured some plants. But he also said she provided information that led to plea agreements of the other defendants as well as three more indictments.
Reich faced 15 to 21 months in prison before Sorenson asked Kay to lower the range of the federal sentencing guidelines to zero to six months of prison.
A Queen's medical technician has resigned after the disclosure that her past work was implicated in the cancer deaths of two Wisconsin women. Implicated technician
resigns from Queen'sJune Fricano, a cytotechnologist with the Diagnostic Laboratory Services Inc., resigned from her position two-and-a-half weeks after the disclosure that she had misread the pap smear tests of two women who died of cervical cancer.
Joel Kennedy, a spokesman for the Queen's Health Systems, said Fricano resigned of her own accord and did not give a reason.
Fricano, who had been employed at the lab five months, was placed on paid leave Aug. 6.
More than 5,000 pap smear slides Fricano read during her employment at the medical center are being sent to a mainland lab to be re-checked, Kennedy said.
The review is expected to be completed by mid-September.
An inquest jury in Wisconsin in 1995 recommended that Fricano be charged with reckless homicide for misreading the test slides of two women who had cervical cancer.
Instead, Fricano avoided criminal charges by agreeing to limits on her professional activities.
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Police/Fire
By Star-Bulletin staffPolice have a description of a white station wagon in the hit-and-run death of an 83-year-old Aala Park man. White station wagon
suspected in hit-and-runSgt. William Watkins of the police Traffic Division said a witness saw the station wagon hit the man on King Street and drive toward town.
Watkins said the dead man was a resident of Aala Park. Police said they have not been able to find the witness, who reportedly chased the station wagon and ran to a nearby bar and asked the doorman to call police.
Police found a slipper near the crosswalk where the man was hit on King Street. His body was found some 60 feet away, police said.
Other Police/Fire items:
Dentist office robbed; information sought
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