ALPENA — Three prescription pills will cost a Presque Isle County woman five months in jail, a judge ruled recently.

Terrie Auger, 51, appearing before the 53rd Circuit Court via teleconferencing call, was arrested after police pulled over the vehicle she was driving to question her passenger. During the traffic stop, police searched Auger’s purse and found three prescription pills, illegally carried in a baggie and not in a labeled pill bottle.

A prescription for the medication had expired years before.

The pills were found when Auger, driving without a license, was on her way to pick up supplies for a local soup kitchen, defense attorney James Gilbert said.

Auger, who has 36 misdemeanors and six felonies on her record, told Judge Aaron Gauthier she came north from the Detroit area to change after spending most of her life addicted to drugs of various kinds.

The death of her daughter from addiction-related health complications was a wake-up call, and she has stayed away from drugs for more than a year and a half, Auger said. Volunteering at the soup kitchen is one of the ways she stays sober, she said.

“I face the drug challenges of life every day,” she told the judge. “And the demons. But I do it head-on.”

Gauthier sentenced Auger to five months in the Presque Isle County Jail, with credit for 69 days served, deviating downward from the nine-month recommendation agreed on as part of the plea arrangement.

Auger thanked the judge, promising him she would be back in a year to show him she was still on the right path.

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Seven months in jail didn’t teach a man a lesson, and now he’ll spend 20 months to 20 years in prison, a judge said Thursday in Alpena’s 26th Circuit Court.

Orlando Quintana, recently jailed after being caught by the Huron Undercover Narcotics Team trafficking cocaine from southeast Michigan into Alpena, was released on probation in January.

Within a week, Quintana was using cocaine and alcohol.

The defendant — who has a criminal record including several prior drug offenses — hasn’t been given the opportunity to get help fighting his addictions, his attorney said. Addiction isn’t just a physical response, but a psychological one, requiring a user’s thought process to change, the attorney said, urging the court to give Quintana a chance to seek counseling.

Probation Officer Dan Weaver reminded the judge that Quintana had voluntarily returned to his old habits mere days after seven months behind bars.

“That was the chance that you gave him to get help,” Weaver told the judge. “And he blew it.”

Judge Benjamin Bolser sentenced Quintana to a minimum of 20 months in prison, with credit for 290 days served.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.