SUNBURY - "Choose your friends carefully."
That was the advice offered by Northumberland County Judge Charles H. Saylor to Jordan Leigh Derck prior to sentencing the 24-year-old Shamokin woman Monday afternoon to 2 years of intermediate punishment on a felony charge of criminal conspiracy to deliver heroin.
Derck, who was ordered to serve the first three months of her sentence on house arrest, also must pay a $100 fine, various costs and fees. Saylor directed the defendant to continue to undergo drug and alcohol counseling, complete 25 hours of community service, refrain from bars and avoid contact with known drug dealers or users and her former boyfriend, Joseph Patrick Rubendall Jr., 23, of Sunbury, a co-defendant in the case.
An additional felony count of criminal conspiracy and charges of possession with intent to deliver heroin, possession of heroin and possession of drug paraphernalia filed by Mount Carmel Chief of Police Todd Owens and Patrolman Matthew Dillman were not prosecuted. Owens and Dillman are members of the Northumberland-Montour Drug Task Force.
Derck and Rubendall were charged in connection with a July 15 incident outside Turkey Hill Minit Market in Strong.
Rubendall was sentenced in late November to serve 1 to 2 years in state prison after pleading guilty to possession with intent to deliver heroin and possession with intent to deliver heroin, Clonazepam and Suboxone.
Derck, who is free on bail, was charged with conspiring with Rubendall to deliver 10 bags of heroin, six Clonazepam tablets, five Suboxone strips and raw bulk heroin and possessing a cellophane bag containing 10 bags of heroin.