Crime & Safety

Counselor Who Had Sex, Shared Drugs With Clients Pleads Guilty

A Severn drug counselor who used drugs and had sex with a probation client has pleaded guilty to an obstruction charge, officials say.

SEVERN, MD – A Severn drug counselor who used drugs and had sex with a probation client and then tried to conceal the man’s pretrial release violations pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges of obstruction of justice and conspiring to conceal alleged violations of pretrial release. Licensed drug counselor Jennifer Hamersky, also known as Jennifer Maroney and Jennifer Hurt, 33, of Severn, was indicted in March for conspiring to conceal alleged violations of pretrial release by one of her. Anthony Evans Owings Seen, also known as Tony, 31, of Glen Burnie, was also indicted.

According to the indictment, Hamersky is a licensed clinical professional addictions counselor contracted to provide mental health and substance abuse assessments and counseling, and urinalysis testing, for pretrial offenders and supervised release defendants under the supervision of the United States Probation and Pretrial Services Office in Maryland. Seen, who is on supervised release under the supervision of USPO, met Hamersky in August 2015, when she conducted Seen’s initial substance abuse diagnostic assessment for the probation office.

Hamersky served as the pretrial release substance abuse and mental health counselor for an unidentified man from September 2015 through February 2016, and again from August 2016 through February 2017, with a break due while the prisoner was incarcerated. Hamersky was responsible for communicating the man's compliance with pretrial release conditions of counseling and urinalysis testing to the probation office.

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Prosecutors say Hamersky and Seen conspired to, and obstructed justice in an effort to conceal from probation officers and federal and district court judges, the man’s violations of his conditions of release. The violations alleged in the indictment include: use of narcotic drugs or other controlled substances; failure to appear for urinalysis testing; and failure to appear for counseling sessions.

Hamersky included false information and omitted details in the subject’s monthly treatment reports which were submitted to the probation office, and that she provided false information to the subject’s attorney and probation officials about the subject's compliance with conditions of release.

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According to the plea agreement, from October 2015 through at least February 2016, while the man was under Hamersky’s supervision, the pair engaged in repeated sexual encounters, and used narcotic drugs or other controlled substances together. After the man’s release from detention in May 2016, the couple ended their sexual encounters, although Hamersky continued to counsel the man as part of his conditions of pretrial release.

Hamersky and Seen conspired to prevent the communication to a law enforcement officer or judge information about the inmate's parole violations, prosecutors said. Hamersky also used narcotic drugs, including using Oxycodone, with the man.

Authorities say while the man was incarcerated at the Chesapeake Detention Facility, Hamersky helped him obtain narcotics for his personal use, then sent a report to his attorney to be used in court, which she knew contained false representations.

Hamersky faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for the conspiracy charge; a maximum of 20 years in prison for each count of obstruction of justice.

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