NEWPORT-Circuit Judge Ben W. Hooper II said this week he plans to mete out increased punishments to defendants who are accused of what he sees as one of Cocke County's most serious drug crimes.

Defendants who are accused of selling their own legally prescribed medications for profit can expect to spend at least some time in jail, Judge Hooper said. The issue was raised in two cases which came before the judge for plea-bargains this week.

The first defendant was 50-year-old Roth Messer Jr., of 565 Banjo Way, who came before Judge Hooper for sentencing on Tuesday after pleading guilty last September to three criminal offenses. Two of those crimes involved selling prescription medication which he said had been prescribed for his former wife.

Messer was arrested on November 14, 2007, in possession of 38 oxycodone tablets and 169 hydrocodone pills, Assistant District Attorney General Tonya Thornton told Judge Hooper in September. Investigators also found a loaded handgun and $3,000 in cash when they searched the defendant.

The defendant pled guilty in September to three counts of possession of a controlled substance for sale and illegal possession of a weapon.

Attorneys in the case had agreed to a recommended sentence in the case which involved supervised probation. But Judge Hooper required that the sentencing agreement also include a term of ten days in the county jail.

"You are contributing to one of the worst problems this county has," Judge Hooper told Messer during the sentencing hearing. People like you get a bottle of pills for $1.10 or $3.20, then you turn around and sell them.

"And there are people out there who are strung out and will do anything for one or two pills. And it just goes on and on," Judge Hooper said. "But then if I put you in jail, that cuts off your check, your income. So I'm at a loss to know how to punish you."

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Messer was sentenced to two years in jail on each of the first two counts of possession of a controlled substance and to a concurrent three-year term for possession of oxycodone for sale, for a net sentence of three years. That term was reduced to ten days in the Cocke County Jail with the balance of the term on supervised probation.

He was fined a total of $4,000 plus court costs, ordered to pay restitution of $344 to the Fourth Judicial District Drug Task Force, will be subjected to random drug screens, and was ordered to have no contact with known drug offenders.

Messer was also given a 30-day suspended sentence for possession of a weapon and was ordered to forfeit the handgun.

Judge Hooper ordered Messer taken into custody on Tuesday to begin serving the jail time.

Brown enters plea

In the wake of his decision in the Messer case, Judge Hooper ordered a Cocke County woman to serve three days in jail for a similar, although lesser, offense.

Thirty-three-year-old Lori Brown had been indicted by the Cocke County Grand Jury on a charge of sale and delivery of a controlled substance. But, in a negotiated plea agreement entered in court on Wednesday, she pled guilty to the misdemeanor charge of casual exchange of a controlled substance.

Prosecutor Thornton told the court that Brown was the subject of an investigation by the Fourth Judicial District Drug Task Force and was recorded selling three hydrocodone pills to an undercover informant in the Newport Wal-Mart parking lot on April 21, 2008.

Under the terms of the proposed plea-bargain, Brown was to be sentenced to a suspended sentence of 11 months, 29 days in jail, reduced to supervised probation.

But Judge Hooper rejected the suspended sentence, saying he could only approve the plea agreement if it included three days in jail, with the balance of the term on probation.

"This is a problem where I'm going to have to do something to get people's attention," Judge Hooper said. "I could approve three days in jail; that's the only way I can approve this recommendation."

Defense attorney Candice Mendez asked the judge to reconsider, saying, "She was subjected to one of the worst forms of humiliation. She was arrested at her place of employment and paraded out in handcuffs. What she will face when she goes back is far worse than three days in jail."

But Judge Hooper insisted that the plea-bargain must include jail time.

Brown and Mendez discussed the question of whether to accept the three-day jail term or return the case to a not-guilty plea, and Brown agreed to accept the jail time, which includes 21 hours which she had already served. She was ordered to report to jail on Tuesday, November 3.

The plea agreement also calls for out-patient drug rehabilitation for Brown, along with a $750 fine plus court costs, restitution to the drug task force of $109, and she was ordered to have no contact with known drug offenders.

But Judge Hooper agreed to place Brown's case on judicial deferral, meaning that if she successfully completes a year of probation with no further legal troubles, she may petition the court to clear her record.

"I'm fully expecting you to be back here in a year asking me to expunge these charges," Judge Hooper told Brown. "And I'll be glad to do it."