Brewer woman sentenced for smuggling drugs

BANGOR – A Brewer woman was sentenced Wednesday to nine months in jail with all but 60 days suspended for her part in a scheme to smuggle drugs to her boyfriend who was in jail for assaulting her.

Brenda Kimball, 37, pleaded guilty in a plea agreement before Justice Thomas Warren in Penobscot County Superior Court to Class D unlawful furnishing of a Schedule W drug, her prescription OxyContin. The incident occurred in early April.

Kimball, who was badly injured in a New Year’s Eve 2003 beating allegedly at the hands of her boyfriend, James “Butch” Boutillier, 42, of Brewer, will have a stay of sentencing for medical reasons and remain out on bail until Feb. 10.

At that time her doctor should have scheduled her next operation, a joint replacement surgery in her shoulder.

Kimball, a former probation officer, was wearing a heavy-duty arm sling and had two IV tubes emerging from her upper right arm during her court appearance. She said she has had five operations so far because of the Dec. 31, 2003, beating.

Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts said the sentencing was “pretty straightforward.”Her attorney, Lawrence Lunn of Bangor, said that he felt Kimball received an appropriate sentence.

“I think it’s fair,” Lunn said after the sentencing. “She has no history or anything. It was an unfortunate event that has in all likelihood ended her career as a probation officer.”

During the April drug-smuggling incident, Kimball and Laura Hall, 22, of Bangor managed to get some of Kimball’s prescribed OxyContin painkillers to Boutillier and another inmate, Denis Moore. Moore was Hall’s boyfriend.

Boutillier remains jailed on a variety of charges, including a November 2003 misdemeanor assault on Kimball.

Prosecutors had to drop the Class B aggravated assault charge from the Dec. 31 beating after Kimball changed her statement and claimed that Boutillier did not assault her.

Kimball was placed on probation for one year, with the conditions that she have no direct contact with Boutillier and have drug testing, if warranted.

After the sentencing, Kimball left the courtroom at her mother’s side.

“It’s been a long year,” she said. “I’m in pain every single day. I used to be a very respected professional. That was all taken away from me.”

Hall also was sentenced Wednesday for her role in the smuggling and for an additional count of trafficking in prison contraband for a separate incident.

She pleaded guilty to two counts of Class D unlawful furnishing of Schedule W drugs and was sentenced to two years in jail with all but two months suspended.

Hall will be on probation for two years.