HANCOCK COUNTY — A woman who became a figure in a major drug case after her companion attacked and injured three sheriff’s deputies during a traffic stop will serve no additional jail time.
Ashley Livingston, 23, Akron, Ohio, was a passenger in a car that was stopped Nov. 27, 2018, along Interstate 70 in eastern Hancock County. The man she was with, George West, of Indianapolis, fought with the deputies and tried to escape because there were drugs in the car.
The case turned into a major drug bust: West, police said at the time, was trafficking more than 3 pounds of methamphetamine found in the vehicle. During the scuffle, one of the deputies suffered a dislocated shoulder when West, according to court documents, was able to jam his car in reverse and back into the officer.
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West in January was turned over to federal authorities, and he now faces multiple federal drug charges that could lead to a long prison sentence.
Livingston, however, was treated leniently. She was sentenced to probation on Monday, Dec. 30, in Hancock County Circuit Court by Judge Scott Sirk for her part in the arrest.
Police ended up finding the methamphetamine in Livingston’s purse during their investigation after pulling over West. However, it turns out, Livingston, who had no previous criminal record, was simply along for the ride.
County officials said she was a secondary, minor suspect; West was the target of the initial investigation that led to the federal charges. That fact prompted county officials to strike a deal with Livingston in which she admitted guilt to a lesser Level 6 felony, rather than the original Level 3 felony meth possession charges she was facing. A Level 2 felony charge of dealing meth was dismissed.
Sirk, who said he trusted the prosecutor’s recommendation, sentenced Livingston to one year in the Hancock County Jail and suspended it to probation. But he warned the young woman to make better choices and to stop associating with people who are destructive.
“You need to make better decisions for your safety, the community and other people,” Sirk said.
Livingston will be able to serve out the terms of her sentence in Ohio once she’s been accepted into a program, Sirk said.
In one of her final cases before being swore in as the new judge in Hancock County Superior Court 1, chief deputy prosecutor Marie Castetter said sentencing Livingston to the Level 6 felony charge was the right thing to do once officials considered her true role in the crime.
“She doesn’t have any kind of record, she was not the one fighting officers and she was not the drug dealer,” Castetter said.
The county dropped charges against West after the federal ones were filed. The prosecutor’s office will consider re-filing local charges as the federal case progresses.
