×

Woman gets 10-year prison term after exiting drug court

Panis given chance to keep the recent convictions off her record by entering drug treatment

WAILUKU — A Lahaina woman who said she regretted not completing the Maui Drug Court program was sentenced Tuesday to a 10-year prison term.

“It’s nobody’s fault but mine,” Marcie Panis said. “There’s no reason I should be in this court again.”

Panis, 37, said she had finished her probation in a 2004 case before being arrested in two 2016 cases.

She was given a chance to keep the recent convictions off her record when she was admitted into the Drug Court program of intensive treatment and supervision in August 2016.

Court records show Panis was jailed after relapsing in October 2016 and again in January 2017. In August, she agreed to end her participation in the program.

She was found guilty of second-degree identity theft, two counts of second-degree theft, three counts of second-degree forgery, unauthorized possession of confidential personal information and third-degree theft.

On Tuesday, Panis asked to be placed on probation to enter drug treatment after already spending more than a year in jail.

“It’s kind of sad she didn’t make it through Drug Court,” said Deputy Public Defender Gene Evans. “I think she gets it.

“She’ll be on her way to sobriety and ending her life of crime.”

Deputy Prosecutor Tracy Jones recommended a prison sentence, saying Panis already had received significant services through probation and the Drug Court.

“She continues to offend,” Jones said. “Her past continues to make itself her present. She has exhibited, in her behaviors, a sense of entitlement to take from others, even though she knows the proper boundaries.

“She has the good fortune of having an employer that takes her back and then she steals from them again. Something’s not registering with her. That’s an issue she’ll need to address in order to move forward in her life.”

Speaking in court, Panis said she was thankful to be sober.

“I don’t want to do drugs,” she said. “I’m not in a crazy relationship.”

She said she was embarrassed by what she did to her family.

In one case in April 2016, police said Panis took two checks from her roommate’s checkbook and forged them. She asked her cousin to deposit one check and deposited the other into her mother’s bank account, according to police.

“I did people wrong,” Panis said.

“Drug Court was an awesome program,” she said. “I regret not finishing it. For the three months I was in there, I felt so proud to be part of it. I’ve seen it change people’s lives.”

Second Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza sentenced Panis to a 10-year prison term for second-degree identity theft. She was sentenced to five-year prison terms and a one-year jail term, to be served at the same time, for her other convictions.

“You do have the potential in life to make things work for yourself,” Cardoza told Panis. “But, as you say, it’s a matter of choices.

“You’ve been given a number of opportunities to turn things around, and I hope in the future you will do that.”

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper?
     
Support Local Journalism on Maui

Only $99/year

Subscribe Today