CLEARFIELD – The attorney for a Houtzdale woman whose home was a base for a local drug ring, was in court Monday asking a judge to give her a shorter sentence.
Pamela Gavlak, 52, and her two children, Robert Gavlak and Catherine Anderson were part of a group selling cocaine in Clearfield County.
Todd Mequim Anderson, 46, Catherine’s husband, was determined to be the leader of the drug enterprise and the one bringing the drug into the area from Beaver County, according to a press release from the Attorney General’s office.
Gavlak’s attorney, Robert Donaldson filed a motion for reconsideration of sentence asking Judge Fredric J. Ammerman to reduce her state prison sentence of 22 months to five years to the lesser sentences given to her children.
In court Monday, Donaldson stated that it was her daughter and son who actually sold the drugs.
Each of them received sentences of 11.5 months to two years less one day in the county jail, according to previous reports.
Donaldson claimed Pamela Gavlak was “minimally involved” and would be better served by a lesser sentence.
Deputy Attorney General David Gorman, who prosecuted the case, noted that both of Gavlak’s children agreed to cooperate in the case. She was offered the same deal, but she did not take it.
Gorman said Gavlak used her home as the base for Todd Anderson, who received an eight to 16-year sentence. Gorman told Ammerman he felt Pamela Gavlak’s sentence was appropriate.
Before ruling on the motion, Ammerman referred to a letter he received from her brother-in-law, Ronald Gavlak and read part of it into the record.
In it, Ronald Gavlak said he couldn’t be silent about his brother’s widow, Pamela Gavlak. He said he watched what transpired at the home until everyone was arrested.
“Everyone in the neighborhood knew what was going on,” he wrote in the letter.
Ronald Gavlak mentioned that he testified before the grand jury and would have testified if this case had gone to trial.
He wrote that Pamela Gavlak was a “habitual liar” and a “good actress,” who had a nice home and a good job before she got into her daughter and her husband’s lifestyle.
“She brought disgrace to my brother and the Gavlak name,” he said.
Ammerman then dismissed the motion, allowing Gavlak’s sentence to stand.
On Tuesday, a motion regarding a post-conviction relief act petition filed by Todd Anderson was discussed briefly. An attorney will be appointed to represent him.
The original press release regarding this case explained that these individuals were identified after a series of controlled drug purchases.
Investigators seized more than 70 grams of cocaine, $2,750 in cash and drug paraphernalia through raids in Houtzdale in March of 2017 and Philipsburg in June of 2017.
“This drug ring was selling more than $10,000 of cocaine a month – pumping their poison into Clearfield and surrounding communities,” said Attorney General Josh Shapiro.