Jackson, MS—A Sidon woman has been sentenced to Drug Court, announced Attorney General Jim Hood today.

Stephanie Ray Barton, age 46, of Sidon, appeared before Judge W. Ashley Hines in Leflore County Circuit Court January 30 and entered an open plea of guilty to one count of obtaining a controlled substance by means of fraud or subterfuge.  An open plea means that the defendant threw herself upon the mercy of the Court, and that no recommendation was made by the State.

Barton was sentenced, pursuant to Section 9-23-1 et seq of the MS Code, to supervision by the 4th Circuit Court District’s Drug Court.  “Drug court” means an immediate and highly structured intervention process for substance abuse treatment of eligible defendants that brings together substance abuse professionals, local social programs and intensive judicial monitoring and follows the key components of drug courts published by the Drug Court Program Office of the United States Department of Justice.

Barton will also be required to undergo drug and alcohol rehabilitation, aftercare programs, and drug/alcohol testing. 

Barton was a licensed practical nurse working at Golden Age Nursing Home in Greenwood.  She was charged by indictment with taking controlled substances from the facility and converting them to her own use by consuming them.       

The case was investigated by Eddie Boyd of the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and prosecuted by Special Assistant Attorney General Garland Lyell of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.