Nancy Sadler

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Frank Lewis

PDT Staff Writer

A day after her husband was sentenced to 12-and-a-half-years, Nancy Sadler, 49, of West Portsmouth was sentenced to 17-and-a-half-years in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, followed by three years supervised release. She was also assessed $400.

Like her husband, Lester “Ape” Sadler, 59, Nancy Sadler was convicted by a jury in May of engaging in a conspiracy to divert controlled substances, namely, addictive prescription pain medications, maintaining premises for such illegal distribution, wire fraud to obtain pills directly from distributors, and structuring financial transactions with the proceeds of her drug dealing.

The length of Nancy Sadler’s sentence reflected a Presentence Investigation Report (PSR) that calculated a total offense level of 34 based on a conservative estimate of the quantity of illegally-distributed drugs. The government’s case stated that because Nancy Sadler was on probation for similar conduct at the time and began the criminal enterprise, she had a criminal history category of II and a guidelines range of 168-210 months.

The state’s case went on to say, “Sadler was previously convicted of wire fraud for her involvement as an employee of a Kentucky pain clinic. Instead of getting out of this life of crime, Nancy Sadler decided to use her knowledge of clinic operations to go into business for herself and brought along Fortune Williams, a doctor who has since been convicted for his illegal distribution of pain medications. Instead of abiding by her probation, Nancy Sadler put the clinic in her sister’s name and manufactured a false letter to the probation officer stating that Nancy Sadler was simply a data clerk at the clinic.”

The defense had countered in the case that the government had over-estimated the amount of dosages attributed directly to Nancy Sadler, and had presented evidence from one witness that they had an illness that required pain medication, and said essentially the same about two others. And they countered the PSR with the following statement:

“The Probation Department correctly notes that Ms. Sadler’s criminal history is limited to a single conviction for wire fraud in 1003. This conviction yields one point in the calculation of Ms. Sadler’s criminal history category. However, the PSR also imposes a two point enhancement under USSG 4A1.1 (d), alleging that Ms. Sadler committed the offenses of conviction while she was on probation for wire fraud. This enhancement had been incorrectly applied to Ms. Sadler. As the PSR correctly notes, Ms. Sadler’s probation was terminated in 2005. The PSR fails to cite a single criminal act as the clinic prior to the termination of her probation.”

Lester Sadler’s father, James Sadler, 80, of West Portsmouth pleaded guilty Dec. 20 to one count of conspiracy. Brenda Banks, 59, of Columbus, formerly a physician at the clinic, pleaded guilty April 30 to one count of acquiring or possessing a controlled substance through deception.

Frank Lewis may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 252, or at flewis@heartlandpublications.com.