Former Clark County constable Glenn Witt said a back injury led to an addiction to painkillers and his arrest last summer for selling pills.

Monday morning, Witt, 53, was sentenced to seven months in federal prison for two counts of distribution of oxycodone, followed by three years of supervised release.

He could have been sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine for each court.

Witt was first arrested by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office last summer after receiving the information he was selling pills. According to court documents, he was scheduled to be assigned to Clark County’s drug court program until he was indicted by a federal grand jury.

According to court documents, Witt began using painkillers following a back injury in 1998 and two surgeries to try and correct the problem.

“I did well for a long time, but then it started taking more and more for me to get thru (sic) the day,” Witt wrote in a letter included in the case file. “Then I reached a point when that was all that mattered. I had to have it as soon as I got out of bed and it was all I thought about.”

A memorandum filed by Witt’s attorney said he quit cold turkey following his arrest in July 2016, after he sold a total of 23 pills to a friend and fellow addict, who turned out to be an informant, on two different days. Witt was not charged with selling pills to anyone else.

When Clark County deputies stopped Witt’s vehicle, they recovered the buy money used for the transaction as well as Witt’s firearm.

Witt’s attorney Russell Baldani argued Witt’s case would never have gone to federal court if he wasn’t an elected official. He also said Witt served a total of 231 days on state charges, between jail and home incarceration, which would be in the middle of federal sentencing guidelines. 

Witt pleaded guilty to both counts in January in U.S. District Court in Lexington. 

Witt was a constable for seven years in Clark County. Upon his sentencing, the position became vacant. Clark County Judge-Executive Henry Branham said he did not plan to appoint someone to fill the job, as the other constables have picked up the workload.