MAIRE O’NEILLUnder the terms of a plea agreement signed Aug. 21 in First Judicial Court in Santa Fe, Aleah Stahl agreed to plead guilty to possession of a controlled substance.
She will serve one year of supervised probation with inpatient treatment as approved by Adult Parole and Probation. A second charge of shoplifting was dismissed under the agreement.
Assistant District Attorney Kent Wahlquist asked the Court to keep Stahl in custody until she could go almost immediately into treatment saying that she has shown she is a danger to herself and can’t be trusted when she is released.
Wahlquist went through Stahl’s criminal history beginning with a driving while intoxicated case in 2014 where possession of a controlled substance and paraphernalia charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement. He said Stahl had picked up a felony possession charge toward the end of 2015, which he had dismissed because she had voluntarily entered an inpatient treatment program.
Wahlquist said that toward the end of 2016, Stahl picked up another DWI charge in Santa Fe, which was dismissed because the officer did not appear for a pre-trial interview but that it was “telling” that she had another DWI in 2016. He said she was out on conditions of release on that offense when she committed the current shoplifting crime and that after her arrest she had methamphetamine on her that she attempted to hide when being booked into jail for the shoplifting charge.
“Her criminal history does show a substance abuse issue. What’s more telling is what she’s done while she’s been out on this case,”
Wahlquist said. He went on to describe violations of Stahl’s conditions of release, which caused further charges.
“On Aug. 3, the defendant overdosed on drugs, she actually was essentially dead and only by the quick administration of Narcan by the first responder was she brought back and my understanding is that they had to do that twice,” he said. “After that the Magistrate ordered her held until this court could set conditions of release. She has a criminal history of substance abuse. If you release her, she can’t stop herself.”
Wahlquist told the Court that Stahl has violated the process and the third time “she died”. He asked Judge Ellington to protect her from herself and keep her in custody.
Stahl’s attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies told the Court Stahl’s parents were prepared to take her in under house arrest or electronic monitoring. She said because Stahl is being held in Los Alamos she is unable to interview with the different treatment places she has applied to. She said nobody is accepting her because she is in custody and they are not able to work out the insurance details along with getting the interview.
“A social worker or probation officer has to send the application in and she’s not getting help from the Los Alamos jail, Carmack-Altwies said. “Everyone agrees she has to get into a treatment. That’s what’s going to save her life.”
Judge Ellington agreed to release Stahl as soon as a place in a treatment program is available saying he wanted to bring her back to court in two weeks to find out what treatment program she had been accepted into.
“These are short-term problems, Ms. Stahl and you have a long-term problem. If it’s in six weeks or two months as opposed to you having a relapse and you either killing yourself as part of the relapse or making it a situation where the only option becomes the penitentiary,” Judge Ellington said. “Better spend the time on the front end and get you into an inpatient program as quickly as possible, knowing that may not happen for a few weeks.”
A status hearing has been set for Sept. 5, however Judge Ellington indicated that if Stahl obtains placement in a treatment facility prior to that, he will release her.