BANGOR – A Milford woman was sentenced Tuesday in Penobscot County Superior Court to four years in prison with all but one year suspended for using forged prescriptions to obtain more than 35,000 doses of painkillers, often at the behest of her daughter.

Christina E. Hesseltine, 41, also was sentenced to two years of probation. Superior Court Justice John Nivison also ordered her to pay $1,600 in fines and $746 in restitution to Maine’s Medicaid program, MaineCare, which paid for some of drugs.

Hesseltine pleaded guilty in August to stealing prescription pads from her employer, a Bangor physician, and using them to obtain Percocet, methadone and hydrocodone pills between April 2006 and September 2007.

Hesseltine used the names of her daughter Ashlee Leavitt, 21, and Leavitt’s boyfriend, Terence Bogan, 31, both of Stillwater, and other family members to obtain drugs at about half a dozen pharmacies in the Bangor area. The trio did not sell the drugs but took them themselves.

Bogan and Leavitt are facing Class B charges of acquiring drugs by deception. The couple has applied to participate in the drug court program.

They did not attend Hesseltine’s sentencing Tuesday.

Hesseltine was indicted in February by the Penobscot County grand jury for aggravated unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs and on four counts of acquiring drugs by deception. The more serious trafficking charge was dropped Tuesday as part of Hesseltine’s plea agreement with prosecutors.

She faced up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000 on the four Class B charges to which she pleaded guilty.

Michael Roberts, deputy district attorney for Penobscot County, recommended that Hesseltine serve 18 months in prison. Defense attorney Marvin Glazier of Bangor asked that his client be given nine months so that she could serve her sentence in the Penobscot County Jail near her counselor and family rather than at the state women’s prison in South Windham.

Hesseltine apologized to the court and said that she could not offer any excuses for what she had done.

“I felt that I could not say no to my daughter,” Hesseltine said. “I know now that I was enabling her. I went to counseling to learn why I was making bad choices. I hope I can help others with similar problems.”

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

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