[420 Girl]

Melissa Daugherty came to court Friday prepared to go to prison on charges that she possessed 7 pounds of marijuana, but instead she went home after a judge reversed her earlier conviction.

Judge Kevin Fitzgerald agreed with arguments from defense lawyer Mark Johnson that evidence at a June 11 bench trial was insufficient to prove Daugherty knew that a package delivered to her Fuller Court home contained the large batch of marijuana. Fitzgerald ruled against Daugherty at the bench trial.

Daugherty faced up to 14 years in prison at Friday’s sentencing hearing.

“I told her there was a 90 percent chance she would be going to prison,” Johnson said after the reversal.

In his original ruling finding the 28-year-old woman guilty, Fitzgerald said he did not believe Daugherty could have missed the strong marijuana smell emitted by the package.

Johnson argued in his post-trial motion that a Chicago postal inspector was the only person who detected the odor from the box that originated in Arizona.

Postal Inspector Jeffrey Gunther testified that the package he handled on May 23, 2007, contained an odor he described as “a cross of marijuana and fabric dryer sheets.”

Authorities confirmed the package contained drugs before resealing it and allowing it to be delivered to Bloomington.

No police officers or experts connected with the case testified about a strong odor from the package.

After an hour of surveillance outside Daugherty’s home, officers seized the unopened package. According to Johnson, a device attached to the package by police that would signal when the package was opened did not activate.

Mozel Palmer, a man who was described by Johnson as a remote acquaintance of Daugherty, sent the package under a fictitious name, authorities said. Palmer faces unrelated drug charges in federal court in Peoria.

Johnson said Wednesday that his client was “shocked and extremely elated” at the judge’s ruling.

“Hard work and intelligent judges protect the individual who finds himself in the courtroom and society as a whole,” said Johnson.

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