A former Macon attorney was sentenced to three years on probation Wednesday, several months after she
pleaded guilty to possession of oxycodone and methamphetamine, with the intent to distribute both drugs.
In sentencing Holly H. Edwards, U.S. District Court Judge Marc Treadwell said he was inclined to add a period of incarceration to her punishment, but he chose not to.
Earlier in the hearing, Edwards said she considers her 3-year-old son as the victim of her crimes.
Treadwell said he thought Edwards’ son would suffer most if his mother was sent to prison. In addition to probation, Edwards also must pay a $1,000 fine and undergo drug and alcohol treatment.
EDWARDS MUST SERVE THREE YEARS OF PROBATION AND PAY A $1,000 FINE.
Edwards has admitted she participated in a drug deal in the parking lot of the Church’s Chicken restaurant on Hardeman Avenue, near Interstate 75 and downtown Macon, in June 2015.
The other party in the drug deal was an undercover GBI agent who recorded the encounter using audio and visual equipment, a federal prosecutor said at Edwards’ plea hearing in April.
Speaking during Wednesday’s hearing, prosecutor Elizabeth Howard said Edwards participated in four drug deals in May and June 2015, some including a confidential informant. As part of her sentence, Edwards was barred from contacting the informant.
Despite the small amount of drugs involved in the transactions, federal authorities took the case in part because Edwards was a lawyer and also because they had interest in her supplier.
Had the case been prosecuted in a superior court, Edwards may have been sentenced as a first offender, giving her the opportunity to complete a sentence without having a felony record. First offender adjudications aren’t offered for such cases in the federal system.
“This conviction will stay with her,” said Charles E. Cox, Edwards’ lawyer.
THIS CONVICTION WILL STAY WITH HER.
Attorney Charles E. Cox said of the charge remaining on Edwards’ criminal record.
As a way of accepting responsibility for her actions, Edwards submitted a petition to voluntarily surrender her law license, he said. The Georgia Supreme Court
issued a notice last month accepting her petition, essentially resulting in her disbarment.
Edwards came to court Wednesday wearing a gray shirt and jeans — more casual apparel than the suit and high heels she wore at her first appearance hearing last year after her arrest. She was indicted Aug. 11, 2015, and
arrested about a week later in a traffic stop on Interstate 75 in Houston County.
Speaking during Wednesday’s hearing, Edwards said from the outside looking in, it probably looks as though her life is “as destroyed as it can be.”
She lost her home to foreclosure and also has lost her law firm and law license.
“I’ve embarrassed my family,” she said.
I’VE EMBARRASSED MY FAMILY.
Holly H. Edwards, speaking at her Wednesday sentencing hearing in federal court.
Edwards said she was on a “track that wasn’t headed anywhere good.”
Now, she lives in a mother-in-law suite at her mother’s home and raises her son and 7-year-old stepdaughter while her husband works.
After entering an in-patient drug rehabilitation center last year, she said she still attends individual and group counseling weekly.
Cox said his client has been tested for drugs multiple times and has shown a dedication to staying sober and drug-free, demonstrating her desire to change “the trajectory of her life from where it was to where she wants to be.”
Edwards and Cox declined comment after the hearing.
Prior to opening her own law practice in 2009, Edwards worked as an assistant public defender in Houston County and as an associate attorney for Macon’s Hogue & Hogue firm.
Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report.
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Former Macon lawyer Holly H. Edwards sentenced in federal drug case
