From staff reports
A 24-year-old man who was living out of a van when he was arrested in December and accused of making methamphetamine won't go to prison as long as he remains law-abiding and doesn't use drugs again.
Olmsted District Judge Jodi Williamson told Joseph Anthony Mulee II at his sentencing hearing Thursday that he has one chance to remain drug-free. Williamson stayed imposition of an 86-month prison sentence and placed him on probation. If Mulee goes back to using drugs or violates other conditions of his probation, he'll have to serve the prison time. He pleaded guilty Feb. 15 to one count of first-degree controlled-substance crime
"I'm willing to take a chance on you," Williamson told Mulee. "Don't disappoint me."
Mulee was arrested Dec. 26 for making meth in his vehicle parked at Chester Woods Park in Marion Township. On Jan. 5, he was arrested again after he showed up at an alleged meth lab dump site in a rural area near Dover.
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"I'm actually quite grateful that someone stopped me before I destroyed myself," Mulee told the judge. "The stuff was just basically killing me."
After three months in custody, Mulee said, he's realized it feels good to be drug-free and wants to stay that way.
"Whatever I get out of this, I'll still be sober at the end, I know that," he said.
Senior Assistant Olmsted County Attorney Jim Spencer recommended Mulee be sent to prison, where he could receive treatment for his addiction in a structured setting and participate in a boot camp program for drug offenders.
Without putting Mulee in a controlled environment, Spencer said, "we're setting him up for failure."
Williamson ordered Mulee to serve six months in jail with credit for time served, complete a chemical dependency treatment program, receive a psychiatric evaluation and follow other conditions of probation.
