Prison, then drug treatment for opioid addict who entered into sham marriage for cash

Stephanie Harris stood before a federal judge Monday in an orange jumpsuit and shackles and took the first step toward recovery after years of drug problems.

“I am an addict,” said Harris, 23, of Kansas City. “Drugs have played a big part in my life and messed my life up tremendously and I want to leave that life behind.”

She will have an opportunity to do so, after a short stint in prison.

Harris was in court because she repeatedly tested positive for drugs, violating the terms of a plea agreement she reached last year with the U.S. attorney’s office after she admitted being part of a scheme to marry foreign nationals so they could get U.S. green cards in exchange for cash.

The Star featured Harris’ mother, Stephanie Gilmore, in a June 26 story about the opioid crisis and the lack of treatment options in the Kansas City area.

Gilmore said her daughter got hooked on opioids from a legal prescription she got as a teenager, and her addiction escalated until she was stealing other people’s prescriptions and seeking illegal drugs. The sham marriage that landed Harris in federal court in the first place, her mother said, was done for drug money.

Gilmore had said she was hopeful that the judge would allow her daughter to go into treatment rather than prison, saying that’s what would be best not only for Harris, but for her two kids and for society as a whole.

Federal prosecutors had said Harris was given a chance to get clean but was “unsuccessfully discharged from inpatient substance abuse treatment due to a verbal altercation with another patient.”

They argued that Harris had violated supervision agreements in the past, not only by testing positive for opioids, but also for cocaine and marijuana and skipping or trying to tamper with drug tests.

Prosecutors also pointed to a criminal history that included forging checks, petty theft and traffic violations.

“The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior and due to the seriousness of Harris’ criminal activity, combined with her drug use, Harris has a high likelihood to re-offend,” prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office wrote in a court filing last year.

Gary Fenner, senior judge for the U.S. District, said Monday that there needed to be consequences for Harris’ actions, and prosecutors’ recommendations for six months of incarceration seemed “reasonable and appropriate.”

He sentenced her to do the six months and then be discharged to a residential treatment facility. This time, he said, she needs to complete the program.

“There are people and programs that can help you, but kind of the bottom line is, you’ve got to make it happen,” Fenner said. “... You’re still a young person, you’ve got a lot of life ahead of you, but it’s not going to be good if you can’t fix your drug problem.”

Fenner called illegal drug use “a horrible problem” and a source of much “violence and misery” in society.

Gilmore said Monday that she was glad her daughter didn’t get a longer prison term. But she still thinks that with better access to drug treatment earlier in her life, the burden to her family and to the taxpayers wouldn’t be necessary.

“This would have never happened had Stephanie not been on drugs,” Gilmore said. “That’s just the bottom line. It took away all her sense of reason, her decision-making.”