A Prairieville man who pleaded guilty to participating in a drug operation responsible for kilograms of cocaine and heroin flooding Baton Rouge and other parts of southern Louisiana shared tearful embraces with his family members as he walked out of a federal courthouse Thursday.
Clarence Corey Anderson, 47, was looking down the barrel of a nearly four-year prison term when he stood before U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick during an afternoon hearing inside the U.S. Middle District Courthouse of Louisiana.
But citing Anderson’s nearly spotless criminal record, his relatively small role in the drug operation and the fact that he “performed exceedingly well” while released on pretrial supervision for three years, Judge Dick spared Anderson any time in prison. Instead, she ordered him to serve two years of probation and imposed a $20,000 fine that he must pay the federal government…