Severn Drug Counselor Who Had Sex With Clients Sentenced

SEVERN, MD – A Severn drug counselor who admitted she used drugs and had sex with a probation client and then tried to hide his pretrial release violations was sentenced for obstruction of justice and conspiring to conceal alleged violations of pretrial release. Jennifer Hamersky, also known as Jennifer Maroney and Jennifer Hurt, 34, of Severn, pleaded guilty in June to the federal charges. She was recently sentenced to 39 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, authorities said.

According to court documents, Hamersky's job was to provide mental health and substance abuse assessments and counseling, and urinalysis testing, for Maryland pretrial offenders and supervised release defendants under the supervision of the United States Probation and Pretrial Services Office.

Hamersky was 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. Hamersky was responsible for reporting the man's compliance with pretrial release conditions of counseling and urinalysis testing to the probation office.

Prosecutors say Hamersky obstructed justice in an effort to conceal the man's release violations from probation officers and federal and district court judges. The violations included: 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 left details out of the subject’s monthly treatment reports which were given 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.

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, including using Oxycodone, 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.

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.

Last year Hamersky discussed how to conceal from the client's probation officer the fact that he had missed a urinalysis test. Hamersky then called the probation officer and left a voice message, falsely stating that he had not missed his urinalysis test.

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