A former Emporia woman, who was alleged to be one of this area’s major drug dealers in 1989, is scheduled for a jury trial on federal drug charges on Nov. 13.
Tracy M. Smith, 45, was indicted by a grand jury on 22 drug-related counts, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court in Topeka on July 14, 2005. Dennis Ray Torrance of Topeka was indicted on 13 charges in the same grand jury indictment.
Jim Cross, public relations official for the court, said that federal charges usually are generated through grand juries.
“The way the prosecutors work is they take their probable cause evidence to a grand jury. We keep grand juries going year-round, and we’ve got three of them,” Cross said. “...(T)hey’re able to present evidence, and if a grand jury votes to return an indictment, then we’ve got what we call a ‘true bill.’”
The grand jury indictment also eliminates the need for a preliminary hearing.
Smith is facing multiple charges of conspiring to distribute and distributing crack cocaine and methamphetamine; using, storing and distributing a controlled substance at a Topeka residence; and using “a communication facility, to wit: The telephone, in committing, causing and facilitating the offenses ...”
A 23rd count deals with a financial judgment and forfeiture of property owned by Smith. The indictment included $2,000,000 “representing the amount of proceeds obtained as a result of Count 1, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.”
Also included was property owned by Smith at 2820 S.E. Maryland in Topeka and valued at $73,800; approximately $14,000 in currency recovered from the S.E. Maryland property on Dec. 15, 2003; approximately $2,252 recovered from a business, TeRay’s Clothing, 516 S.E. 29th St. in Topeka on Dec. 15, 2003; $1,075 recovered from TeRay’s on June 2, 2005; and approximately $20,878 recovered from the S.E. Maryland house on June 2, 2005.
Smith’s trial in Lyon County District Court in 1989 resulted in convictions on two counts of sale of cocaine, one count of possession with intent to sell; one count of possession of drug paraphernalia; and two counts of possession of cocaine without a tax stamp.
Then-Administrative Judge William J. Dick sentenced Smith to a total of 38 to 116 years in prison. Dick doubled the standard sentences because of Smith’s two prior felony convictions, and ordered the individual sentences to be served consecutively. A Kansas Appeals Court ruled that the sentence “exceeds the bounds of reasonableness.”
Lyon County District Court Judge John Sanderson did not decrease Smith’s total prison time during a re-sentencing hearing in January 1992; he shortened the time she would serve by making some of the sentences run concurrently instead of consecutively.
Smith was paroled on Nov. 20, 2000, after serving more than 10 years of the amended sentence. She was discharged from parole on Dec. 3, 2003.