LIHUE — A Kauai woman is still unsure why federal prosecutors decided to drop a drug-trafficking charge pending against her for the past year, but she isn’t about to question it.
Until Friday, Alejandra Sanchez, 28, faced more than a decade in prison for allegedly receiving a half-pound shipment of crystal methamphetamine in the mail in September 2018, according to charging documents in a case dismissed at the request of federal prosecutors after over a year of proceedings.
The federal prosecutor handling Sanchez’s case filed a motion last Thursday asking that the criminal complaint against her be dismissed, a request the judge granted the following day. The motion contained only a single sentence and provided no justification for the decision to drop the charges.
According to court documents, Sanchez was allowed out of federal custody while awaiting trial to stay at an addiction treatment center late last year and, since that time, the conditions of her release were steadily relaxed. She was allowed to participate in work treatment programs and eventually given permission to live outside of the drug treatment center.
Then, on Oct. 24, the same day her case was dismissed, the federal court officer in charge of monitoring Sanchez submitted a report alleging that she had admitted to using heroin a month before, and requesting that the judge require Sanchez to appear in court and explain why she should not be taken back into custody.
The next document filed in Sanchez’s case is the U.S. Attorney’s motion to dismiss the case.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Honolulu declined to comment on the decision to drop the charges, and even Sanchez isn’t sure exactly what happened.
“You know, I’m not positive,” she said Tuesday, when asked if she knew why her case was thrown out. “I’m just happy this is over with.”
Sanchez said she found out last week when her pretrial services officer called with the news, “which he said hardly ever happens, and I didn’t question it.”
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Caleb Loehrer, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0441 or cloehrer@thegardenisland.com.
