Founder of New Albany halfway house sentenced to 30 years in prison
PAOLI, Ind. (WHAS11) – Holding her daughter close and feeling positive, Lisa Livingston walked into a small Paoli courtroom knowing her future would soon be decided by a judge.
At least 60 people crowded into the courtroom, many having to stand, in order to support the recovering addict – turned businesswoman – turned treatment center executive.
“I guess I’ll just try to grow up a little bit and try to go on without my mom,” her daughter, Lacey, told WHAS11 News moments after hearing her mother’s sentence.
Livingston pleaded guilty to drug charges she committed five years ago. It was a crime that led her to open The Breakaway in New Albany.
WHAS11 News reported Livingston’s story last fall when she opened New Albany’s only halfway house for women. The mission is to help those in recovery break away from their addictions.
“We’re keeping this place open for Lisa. She started it, it’s her dream, it’s her mission, it’s her vision. It’s not going anywhere,” said Janis Barnett who is a Programming Director at The Breakaway.
When Livingston first told us about her sentencing date, and talked to WHAS11 News in November, knowing jail was very possible.
“As much as I would like to control that and do my service work on the outside, there may be somebody on the inside that needs my help so I have to stay focused and know that God has a bigger plan,” she explained.
After learning of Livingston’s 30-year sentence in Paoli, Alesha Doan, just one of eleven women at The Breakaway said it’s a loss for them.
“She’s been there since day one, with me being sober and everything, and she’s just pretty much changed my life all the way around,” Doan explained.
Orange County Judge Steve Owens did not believe Lisa’s new, clean and sober life was enough to justify her criminal history and keep her out of prison.
“I was hoping for the best but I was prepared for the worst,” her daughter said.
Judge Owens said because Lisa’s charges five years ago included the dealing and possession of drugs and the ingredients to make them, he believed her crimes were too serious for home-incarceration.
“She is not that person anymore, that’s her past. Our past does not dictate our future,” said Barnett.
Met with hugs and tears, Livingston had a message for those there to support her, telling them to stay strong and learn from her mistakes, while a board of directors will keep The Breakaway open.
Judge Owens said in court that Lisa’s trial had been postponed 10 times and said she should’ve ‘spent more time resolving the case, not working on building a model resume.’ Lisa’s sister told WHAS 11 News they are considering an appeal.
Orange county in south central Indiana has a population of abt 19,000 … very rural, very poor and very “small town”… much like the rest of southern Indiana Just like the small southern Indiana county (Scott pop abt 25,000) where a couple of years ago showed up with about 200 new HIV+, and Hep B&C because many substance abusers sharing needles… Indiana’s then Governor Mike Pence, at first denied a clean needle program in Scott County, and after much uproar Gov Pence granted a 30 day clean needle program … as if 30 days worth of clean needles would solve the problem… before the 30 days was up, he granted a ONE YEAR clean needle program.
Then there is another Southern Indiana County ….Indiana County Closes a Needle Exchange Despite HIV and Hepatitis C Risks https://www.poz.com/article/indiana-county-closes-needle-exchange-despite-hiv-hepatitis-c-risks because according to one county commissioner … “It came down to morally, they’re breaking the law. I can’t condone that,” Lawrence County Commissioner Dustin Gabhart told the paper. “Yes, it’s a problem. Yes, it needs to be resolved. I could not give them the tools to do it.”
Filed under: General Problems
This judge is nothing but a self satisfied, moralizing ,one dimensional thinker. Was it the courts fault or her fault court was changed 10 times? Unbelievable.
well that makes sense to give her 30 years after she’s cleaned up her life and turned it around. Meanwhile someone who rapes a woman gets maybe a year or two. I can’t think of a better waste of money then putting somebody who’s turn their life around in jail. The judge could easily made it where if she had relapsed or done something like that then send her to jail but her being clean and getting her turning life around meant nothing to him nor did the help that she did has probably save more addicts then what the government has done about this. And then the judge to say that she should have spent more time working on your case instead of turning her life around shows that she was somebody who cared about other people then the possibility of her going to jail. No wonder this country so damn screwed up with judges like that.
I’m ashamed to say I live in Southern Indiana. They are so many closeminded bigots in our government, but then I don’t know where I’d move that would be any better