Former Macon paralegal who once sold drugs at Crawford courthouse could have probation revoked
FORT VALLEY -- Stacie Castleberry served two years in prison after being caught selling drugs at her desk, in the restroom and in the parking lot of the Crawford County Courthouse, where she worked in 2004 and 2005.
About eight years after her release, Castleberry stood in front of a Superior Court judge in Fort Valley on Monday, asking for a bond on a new charge stemming from an allegation that she had smuggled contraband into the Bibb County jail.
Castleberry, 40, was employed as a paralegal at Macon's Gomez Law Firm when she was arrested this month on charges of illegally passing items to inmates and criminal street gang activity.
Arrest warrants allege that she accepted the delivery of a package -- that contained tobacco and a cellphone -- at the law office and that she passed the package to an inmate at the Bibb County Law Enforcement Center.
The inmate, 33-year-old Martin "Sawed Off" Kendall, is an alleged leader of Macon's Mafia street gang who's been held at the jail since he was charged with murder in 2011. He's also charged with a string of offenses that authorities say happened during his incarceration.
Castleberry's attorney and employer, Debra Gomez, said Castleberry has been in a "serious relationship" for about 16 years.
"That started to fall apart. Stacie has always had very low self-esteem. She's bipolar. These men were showing her attention," Gomez said.
Castleberry believed Kendall when he told her he was no longer part of the gang and that he was getting into fights at the jail because he didn't want to be involved, Gomez said.
Castleberry, who attended Monday's hearing wearing a Peach County jail jumpsuit, also is accused of passing a cellphone charger and prayer oil to Kendall at the Bibb County jail on behalf of a lower level Mafia gang member, according to warrants.
Authorities also say that Castleberry delivered contraband to at least one other inmate.
After hearing arguments from Gomez and District Attorney David Cooke, Judge Tripp Self denied a motion to remove a probation hold -- stemming from her past drug convictions -- which rendered a decision on her bond request moot.
Self told Gomez that if he changes his mind on the probation hold, Castleberry would not be precluded from asking for bond.
Cooke said he is seeking a hearing to revoke Castleberry's probation as soon as possible.
He's also seeking to have her resentenced on the prior drug cases based on the new charges.
ALLEGED CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE
During Monday's hearing at the Peach County Courthouse, Cooke said the new charges against Castleberry stemmed from an investigation into criminal street gangs, law enforcement and other people smuggling cellphones, drugs and other contraband into the Bibb County jail.
Cooke said Castleberry abused her position of trust and used her official position as a paralegal to conduct a criminal enterprise while on probation for a similar abuse of trust.
The sentencing range for a conviction of participating in gang activity is up to 15 years, while the contraband charge carries a sentencing range of one to five years.
"Part of the reason we're going after these (street-gang related) allegations ... so hard is that even once they are in jail, they are using these phones to conduct and plan other crimes," Cooke said.
Gomez told the judge she was shocked by the new charges. Castleberry was qualifying for early termination of her probation in April.
Gomez said Castleberry gave authorities a detailed statement about her involvement with Kendall and admitted delivering two packages. An arrest warrant in the case indicates she's also admitted to passing contraband to at least one other inmate.
Gomez asked that Castleberry be granted bond under house arrest conditions with an electronic monitor.
Cooke noted that he's concerned because "it appeared to probation that she was doing everything she was supposed to do while she was concealing the criminal enterprise."
At the hearing's end, Castleberry was allowed to hug her mom, Wanda Castleberry, before being returned to jail. Several other members of her family watched on from the front row of the courtroom.
PAST DRUG CASES
The Telegraph reviewed records from Castleberry's criminal past after filing an Open Records Act request.
Here's what the records showed:
Castleberry was working in the Crawford County Superior Court Clerk's Office when GBI agents started an undercover investigation using controlled informants who purchased drugs from Castleberry.
She pleaded guilty to selling morphine, methamphetamine and OxyContin. Besides the sales at the courthouse, Castleberry also sold drugs to an informant at her Crawford County home.
A judge sentenced Castleberry to 15 years, five of them in prison, in April 2006.
She also was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine and was barred from the Crawford County Courthouse and working for a government agency.
Castleberry also pleaded guilty to two counts of deposit account fraud and was sentenced to a year of probation on each count in 2006. She also was ordered to pay $311.52 restitution to the Crawford County tax commissioner and $100 to Piggly Wiggly.
Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report. To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398 or find her on Twitter @awomackmacon. To contact writer Becky Purser, call 256-9559 or find her on Twitter @becpurser.
This story was originally published January 25, 2016 at 9:18 PM with the headline "Former Macon paralegal who once sold drugs at Crawford courthouse could have probation revoked ."