On Monday, May 16, Madison County’s former property appraiser Debra Pickles Bassett was arrested after investigators realized that Bassett was arranging to have packages of controlled substances delivered to her home through a courier service.
Lieutenant Haskell, Sergeants Lauth and Boatwright and Deputy Goldman of the Madison County Sheriff’s Office accompanied Homeland Security Investigators to Bassett’s home and utilized covert tactics to deliver the package to her residence.
When the package was signed for and accepted, officers took action.
From her residence, MSO officers recovered 24,680 doses of Tramadol, a schedule 4 drug and 1,580 doses of Zolpidem following Bassett's arrest.
Tramadol is a narcotic that treats moderate to severe pain and Zolpidem is used to treat insomnia.
Following her arrest, Bassett entered the state’s legal system, where, had things gone as they usually do, she would have been given a fair trial.
However, before Bassett could go to trial, she entered a Pretrial Intervention Program (PTI).
A PTI program is one that is usually administered by the State of Florida through the Department of Corrections and is offered to any person that had been charged with a misdemeanor or felony of the third degree and had been previously charged of not more than one nonviolent misdemeanor.
By entering a PTI program, Bassett will go through a supervised program that is similar to probation. The typical conditions of a PTI program includes counseling or treatment – if deemed necessary after an evaluation, community service, monthly reporting and payment of supervision fees. However, each PTI agreement can be tailored to fit the needs that each offender requires according to the nature of their crime.
The PTI program offers offenders the ability to be diverted from the traditional criminal justice sentencing alternatives.
Another benefit of going into the Pretrial Intervention?
If Bassett successfully completes the programs and treatments, the record of her third degree arrest will be dismissed and wiped clean.