Luzerne County Woman Sentenced To Probation With Home Confinement For Misprision Of A Felony

     The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a 31-year-old Wilkes-Barre resident was sentenced to probation with home confinement by U.S. District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion yesterday in Scranton.

     According to United States Attorney Peter J. Smith, Christine Hanahan admitted to failing to report the nature and extent of her paramour’s cocaine trafficking in and around Kingston.

     Hanahan was indicted by a federal grand jury in March of 2013, as a result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Kingston Police Department into cocaine distribution and firearms straw purchasing.  She pleaded guilty to a superceding criminal information, charging misprision of a felony filed on October 9, 2013, after Judge Mannion rejected the proposed plea to straw purchase of a firearm due to the defendant’s insistence that it was a purchase made jointly with her partner, and co-defendant, Jovon Martin, also charged in the case.

     Judge Mannion placed Hanahan on supervised release for two years, including six months on home confinement with electronic monitoring.

     Two of Hanahan’s co-defendants previously entered guilty pleas in the case.  John Teslicko was sentenced to 6 months in prison.  Jovon Martin is awaiting sentencing.

     The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Amy C. Phillips