Law school grad sentenced to 3 years in prison for dealing meth

A major Richmond-area methamphetamine dealer who graduated from the University of Richmond School of Law in January was sentenced Friday to three years in prison.

Jennifer Marie Patterson, 33, of Chester, an admitted addict, pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge in May for helping distribute more than a pound of meth from 2007 to 2009.

Crying softly, she apologized Friday to U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne and her family.

"A lot of really good things have happened to me since my arrest," she said. "I have never felt so much peace and real happiness in my life as I have in the last few months. As odd as it may sound, I'm very grateful … this has happened."

Although she was facing 10 or more years in prison, the government asked for a five-year term because of her "substantial assistance" to investigators. David T. Maguire, an assistant U.S. attorney, said, "Her rehabilitation has been outstanding. We agree with that."

But, he said, "for two or three years she was distributing the most addictive and physically destructive drug in America today. She was distributing massive amounts of this. She was not a small dealer."

Her lawyer, Claire Cardwell, said Patterson began dealing to support her own habit and not for profit and a lavish lifestyle. "It is a very ferocious addiction; it's one that nags daily and costs money," Cardwell said.

Among three witnesses who testified on Patterson's behalf Friday morning was John Douglass, a former assistant U.S. attorney and a UR law professor who was the dean of the law school while Patterson attended.

He said she was allowed to remain in law school in large part because she had started to turn her life around prior to her arrest, and he believed that she stood a strong chance of graduating.

She was in a deep hole, Douglass said, but the more he got to know her, "the more I was convinced that she was going to make it out of the hole, and that's not an easy thing to do."

A sentencing memorandum filed by Cardwell said Patterson was the oldest of three children. She attended, at various times, James Madison University, Richard Bland College and the College of William and Mary.

"She was a user of marijuana, acid, Ecstasy, cocaine, crack cocaine and methamphetamine through her 20s," the document said. She entered law school in the fall of 2007 and during her first year, Cardwell said, she lapsed into methamphetamine use.

"With the consent and support of the law school leadership, she obtained a medical leave of absence and was able to begin again through the summer entry program," Cardwell wrote.

She wrote that Patterson stopped using cocaine in 2008, meth in 2009, marijuana in 2010 and alcohol in 2011.

Patterson is enrolled in the Lawyers Helping Lawyers program, a 12-step program for lawyers with addictions. She was allowed to take the state bar examination in July, but the results will not be known until next month.

An official with Lawyers Helping Lawyers testified Friday that her felony conviction would not necessarily prevent her from practicing law in Virginia. Assuming she passes the bar examination, she has five years to be licensed without having to retake it.

Authorities say Patterson was part of a loosely confederated group of methamphetamine dealers in central Virginia who, from 2007 to this year, distributed 40 pounds of meth with a street value of more than $1.5 million.

The gang was broken up by Operation Endgame, a task force investigation conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Richmond police into meth trafficking.

So far, at least 17 defendants have been sentenced, including a former National Guard officer, a teacher and the owner of a posh Park Avenue home in the city's Fan District.

After sentencing Patterson on Friday, Payne said: "It is, in fact, fortunate that you did not sink into the abyss there to die." But, he said, she may have been dealing methamphetamine to others who were not as fortunate as her or had the same support.

Payne allowed her to report to prison on her own Nov. 8. He wished her well and said he hoped she would remember, "You are, indeed, an addict and you will be one until the day you die."