New mom sent back to prison

Anthony Martinez is suddenly a father on his own. Hours after his wife, Kendra Goodrick, was handcuffed and whisked away from a Kootenai County courtroom Thursday, Martinez sat by the phone in the couple’s Hayden rental house.

Their 3-month-old boy cried in the background as Martinez awaited a collect call from his wife to find out where she’ll serve the remainder of a two-year prison sentence for meth delivery charges.

Goodrick, 29, said she kicked her meth habit and turned her life around since she was placed on probation 18 months ago. She married Martinez and gave birth to Jameson in April. But now she’s heading back to prison to finish the sentence 1st District Judge John Mitchell had suspended in January 2006.

The state Court of Appeals ruled that Mitchell waited too long to place Goodrick on probation and ordered the North Idaho woman back to prison.

She was back in court Thursday, asking that the 18 months she spent on probation be counted toward the prison sentence she never expected to complete. It could be months before Goodrick gets a hearing before the Idaho Commission for Pardons and Paroles.

Jameson cried in the hallway outside Mitchell’s courtroom as Goodrick sat at a table next to her attorney, wringing her hands.

Kootenai County Deputy Public Defender Val Siegel filed a last-minute motion asking the judge to stay the sentence. Chief Deputy Prosecutor Marty Raap objected to the stay as well as attempts to have the 539 days she was on probation credited toward her sentence.

Raap told Mitchell the decision wasn’t the judge’s to make. “There’s no more jurisdiction,” Raap said in court. “It’s like you can’t be a little bit pregnant. You can’t have a little bit of jurisdiction. Either you have it or you don’t.”

Mitchell disagreed with the prosecutor. “This court finds I have jurisdiction,” he said.

But Raap said that allowing time not spent in jail to be counted as time served is a “ridiculous notion.” If Mitchell were to grant the motion to stay the sentence, it could be appealed and continue to draw out Goodrick’s case, possibly delaying her inevitable return to prison, Raap suggested.

“Help me understand your argument about dragging this out farther,” Mitchell said.

The judge cited two other Kootenai County cases, both involving sex offenders, in which the state’s high courts ruled that Mitchell didn’t have legal authority to place convicts on probation. He said he granted motions allowing the time those sex offenders spent on probation to be counted toward their sentences, and the prosecutors in the cases raised no objections.

Why would the prosecution object in Goodrick’s drug case but not in cases involving sex offenders, the judge asked Raap. “What’s different now?”

Just because a ruling isn’t appealed doesn’t mean the ruling is correct, Raap responded.

Mitchell said he would take Goodrick’s motion for credit for time served under advisement and rule later.

But representatives from the Idaho Department of Corrections were in the courtroom, and Raap said they would take Goodrick into custody immediately. Mitchell said there wasn’t a motion by prosecutors – or an order – stating that Goodrick’s sentence had to be executed.

“My position is the court doesn’t need one,” Raap said. “It’s our intent to take her into custody.”

Mitchell replied, “I’m not a part of that. Do whatever you want. The department can do whatever it wants.”

As the parties in the next case to be heard came forward, two corrections employees walked toward Goodrick. “So are you taking Kendra away now?” her husband asked.

Goodrick cried as she was led out the back door.

“I hope you’re happy now, Mr. Raap,” Martinez said as the prosecutor walked past him.

Her family briefly gathered in the hallway outside the courtroom after the hearing. Martinez rocked Jameson in his arms, a denim diaper bag flung over his shoulder.

“We are so disappointed,” said Goodrick’s mother, Gwen Cleveland. “I was pleased to see her finally beginning to realize her true potential.”

The couple prepared for the possibility she would go back to jail. Goodrick called the Kootenai County Jail weeks in advance to see if she could pump breast milk there to send home for Jameson.

They also said they’ve been overwhelmed by support the community has shown, from offers of help paying for child care – Martinez works graveyard shift as a refrigeration technician – to airline tickets so Martinez can visit his wife in prison.

“The community knows there is a drug problem out there, and they’re very supportive of people who turn their life around and get off drugs,” said Martinez, who is also a recovering meth addict.

He said he has no bitterness toward the prosecutor’s office but said it was devastating to see his wife placed into handcuffs. He wasn’t allowed to hug her goodbye.

And Goodrick didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to her baby.

“We pretty much turned our life over to God and, obviously, this is what God wanted,” Martinez said. “I think maybe he’s doing this so she can touch somebody’s life while she’s incarcerated.”