Teacher in prison for meth distribution

Former Big Island Teacher In Prison For Meth Distribution

Daryl Huff KITV 4 News Reporter
POSTED: 1:59 pm HST March 2, 2010

HILO -- Lynn Dionise, a former special education teachers, was scheduled for sentencing on state drug charges Tuesday, but she couldn't make it. Dionese, 52, is serving time in federal prison on the Mainland in another drug case.

Attorneys say the state and federal drug cases were not directly related, although both were prosecuted at the same time.

Hawaii County Police raided Dionise's condominium in Keaukaha in Apri 2008 and where they found about 7 grams of crystal methamphetamine and about $13,000 in cash in a safe. She was charged in state court with drug distribution and later pleaded guilty to promoting dangerous drugs in the second degree, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Meanwhile, she was also being investigated by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration after being heard on a wire tap working with a dealer named Jorge Alberto Leal. Dionise was indicted nearly 8 months after her arrest in the state case, but the courts proceded much more quickly. After pleading guilty, Dionese was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison. While out on bail, Dionice struggled with her drug addiction and was forced to face the judge several times for violating her bail conditions.

Dionise's attorney says she chose to surrender to federal prison, so that the state court would have the option of sentencing her to serve her state time along with the federal sentence, rather than serving one sentence after the other.

Now, in order to be sentenced in the state case, prosecutors will have to use a writ to have her released from federal custody and transported to the Big Island, a process that can take several months.