At 73, she’ll be serving jail sentence on heroin charge
Gray hair framing her face, smartly attired and well-spoken, Cheryl Bartus looked more like someone who had accompanied a younger family member to court rather than a defendant waiting for her own case to be called.
But the case of Bartus, 73, of Charleroi, was on the docket of Washington County Court Judge Michael Lucas, who had previously heard her guilty plea to delivery of heroin.
She said she is not a drug user, but described procuring the opiate last winter for a man with whom she previously had a relationship.
“The relationship is over,” she told the judge Friday.
Complicating her life is a new charge filed by police in Donora, where she owns a home that was vandalized. Her attorney, Noah Geary, said Bartus stands accused of paying those doing chores at the property not with cash or a check, but with heroin.
“I feel sorry for people who are feeling sick,” Bartus said of addicts’ withdrawal symptoms.
“After I was arrested, I had more bills to pay,” she testified, noting she has $317 a month in Social Security to live on after Medicare expenses are deducted.
“I just don’t want that life anymore,” she testified, saying she was embarrassed to be appearing in court.
Bartus, in her 50s, earned a bachelor’s degree in technical writing from California University of Pennsylvania, and she presented the court with testimonials she was “a wonderful, giving person,” the judge said.
Geary requested his client be permitted to serve any sentence at home with an electronic monitor, but Lucas asked, “What choice do I have? If I put you back in that geographic area, is anything going to be different?”
Assistant District Attorney John Friedmann said the charge against Bartus could warrant as much as 9 to 23 months of incarceration.
Lucas concluded the proceeding by sentencing Bartus to 36 months in the intermediate punishment program, with the first five months to be served in Washington County jail, followed by 10 months on electronic home monitoring. She has been free on bond, but the judge ordered her to make arrangements with the jail to report for her sentence.