A great-granny gangster who went by the street name “Mama Dot” was sentenced to five years prison in Manhattan today for admittedly conspiring in a million-dollar-a-year East Harlem drug gang.
Cane-dependent Doris Smith — a 72-year-old retired Bellevue Hospital nurse — had to salvage her deal at the last minute when a judge called her on the carpet for telling reporters and probation officials that she was actually innocent.
“I’d like to hear something from her,” an angry Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Edward McLaughlin said in threatening to revoke Smith’s August 30 plea and force the granny to risk up to 15 years to life by going to trial.
“She’s the person who put herself in this predicament,” the judge said.
“When directly asked (by probation officials) if she sold drugs or conspired to sell drugs, she denied involvement, saying ‘No,'” the judge said, reading from her statement to probation officials.
“And she went on to say that she was suspicious of her son-in-law because he always had money,” the judge continued, referring to Lamont Moultrie, the drug king-pin relative Smith was accused of conspiring with.
“I didn’t say that,” the granny protested in court. “Your honor, I want to keep my plea.”
The judge then went forward with the sentencing, giving Smith five years prison plus five years probation upon her release.
Smith was co-op board president of her W. 115th Street apartment, where she let the gang use the basement to stash and distribute it’s inventory — which prosecutors say included PCP by the gallon.
She was also caught on wiretaps warning her fellow gangsters — including her own daughter — when police came anywhere near “The Office,” as the basement was called, according to the indictment against her.
“She’s always been a loving and lovely, compassionate person,” said her lawyer, Kevin Sylvan, calling his client’s apparent waffling a “misunderstanding.”