A Long Island judge is blazing mad at a woman he freed from jail so she could get a heart transplant — after learning she’s been barred from getting a new ticker because she won’t quit smoking.
Nassau County District Court Judge Francis Ricigliano yesterday ripped Diane McCloud, of Hempstead, but gave her until June 10 to ditch the habit.
In court, McCloud, 48, whose lawyer argued last January that she was facing “a death sentence” for stealing merchandise from a local Target store, admitted to still smoking about 4 cigarettes a day.
Last winter, Ricigliano released McCloud from a 15-month sentence at the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow after her doctor informed the court that her heart condition had worsened and she had less than six months to live if she did not receive a new heart.
At the time of her release, the troubled woman was entering the seventh month of a 15-month term for stealing $2,347 worth of merchandise from a Target in Westbury on Dec. 23, 2009, and $1,558 in items from the same store on Jan. 6, 2010, according to published reports.
She had been charged with two counts of fourth-degree grand larceny, both felonies, but pleaded guilty to two lesser counts of misdemeanor petit larceny and was sentenced to consecutive terms of 12 months and three months.
Recently, her doctor notified the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office that she had refused to stop smoking and had missed several appointments and drug tests.
McCloud’s attorney, Leonard Isaacs, said the judge and prosecutors had been fair.
McCloud could not be reached last night, and the Nassau County district attorney declined to comment.