A woman convicted of drug charges connected to the 2011 overdose death of a Vernon Hills High School student has been resentenced for violation of terms of her probation after she tested positive for heroin while in a treatment program.
Michelle Lee was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months of periodic imprisonment in the Lake County Jail’s work release program, where she will only be released for court-approved treatment, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Jim Newman. Lee is not currently employed.
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Judge Mark Levitt also sentenced Lee to a new 48-month period of probation. Newman had requested a prison term for Lee, while defense attorney Jason Powell had requested continued probation.
Powell has argued that Lee, who was 21 when she was initially convicted, is a recovering addict struggling with her disease. But Newman said in court she was also a convicted drug dealer who had sold heroin to kids.
Lee was convicted in 2014 of one count of delivery of a controlled substance after selling $40 worth of heroin to one of three Vernon Hills High School friends who then snorted it at Butler Lake Park in Libertyville in the early evening of Oct. 7, 2011.
One of the girls, a 15-year-old Vernon High School student, died at her home later that night or early the next morning after initially being treated for an overdose at a local hospital.
Levitt originally sentenced Lee in July 2014 to 30 months of intensive probation, including 18 months of periodic imprisonment, during which time she was only be released from jail for school, treatment or probation activities.
Lee was remanded to jail earlier this year after Newman informed Levitt she had tested positive for heroin for a second time since fall, with the second instance occurring while she was participating in an inpatient drug rehabilitation program.
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