Jacqueline Anderson
HANCOCK COUNTY — An Indiana woman was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison in mid-February from an incident in Rushville in May of 2021. She was charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. The woman will enter into a plea agreement for almost the same drug crimes in Hancock County.
Jacqueline Anderson, 37, is a current inmate in the Oldham County Detention Center in La Grange, Ky., where she is serving a lengthy federal penalty for the crimes in Rushville. Locally, she’s facing a Level 2 felony count of dealing methamphetamine, a Level 3 felony count of possession of methamphetamine and Level 6 felony count of maintaining a common nuisance from an incident in Greenfield in August of 2020.
Anderson had a change of plea hearing surrounding the local charges via zoom Feb. 23 in Hancock County Circuit Court. She’s set for a sentencing hearing at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, April 13 where judge Scott Sirk will hand down the details of her local term.
The local plea agreement has been signed by all parties and calls for Anderson to admit guilt to the Level 2 felony count of dealing methamphetamine. The agreement notes Anderson is to be given a 15-year sentence to be served at the Indiana Department of Corrections. The plea agreement says the sentence will run concurrent with the federal sentence, but the acceptance or denial of the agreement will be left up to Sirk.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Anderson’s federal 15-year sentence from the Rushville incident on Feb. 16, saying she’s also been ordered to 10 years of supervised probation following her release. The sentence was announced by Zachary A. Myers, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana; Michael Gannon, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of Indianapolis Field Office of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); and Rush County Sheriff Allan Rice.
The closure of the federal charges allowed officials in the Hancock County Prosecutor’s office to get the local case wrapped up. The local plea agreement was originally signed back in Aug. 0f 2022, but the case remained open as the federal case of Anderson made it’s way through the system, prosecutor Brent Eaton said.
Locally, Anderson was arrested in August of 2020 along with two others when officials intercepted a package filled with illegal drugs.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the parcel, a cardboard box measuring 16-by-10-by-10 inches, contained a pound of a crystalline substance that had been wrapped in plastic. The package from an address in Los Angeles was being sent to an address in the 1600 block of West New Road in Greenfield. It was intercepted at a distribution center in Indianapolis with the help of a K-9 officer.
The crystalline substance field-tested positive for methamphetamine, the affidavit said.
Authorities resealed the package for delivery, but not before adding an electronic signaling device and a GPS tracking device, the affidavit said.
The package was delivered on Friday, Aug. 7, 2020 to the Greenfield address. After the package was taken into the residence, police quickly arrived with a search warrant, the affidavit said.
Once inside, police found the package inside a clothes dryer. The drugs were still packaged in the plastic container and the container was taped shut, as it had been prior to delivery, the affidavit said. However, the signaling device that was in the box had been torn away and discarded somewhere inside the residence.
Anderson, who retrieved the package to bring it inside the house, told police she no longer lived at the residence but instead lived in New Castle. Anderson told police she thought the package was filled with safety masks she had ordered, the affidavit said.
In addition to the package with drugs, according to the court documents, authorities found a couple thousand dollars in cash and numerous cellphones.
