PEABODY — Joanna Snyder's record as a con woman stretches back over three decades and 28 pages, and across the country.
She's even managed to talk at least two judges into more lenient sentences, blaming crimes like identity fraud, forgery and larceny on untreated bipolar disorder.
But yesterday, her tears and promises didn't work, as one of the judges who had given her a break just last year revoked her probation and sentenced her to three to four years in state prison.
"I believe now I was too lenient," said Judge Timothy Feeley, who last August sentenced Snyder to time served, with suspended sentences and probation, after the 47-year-old Peabody woman promised she would take her medication and try to be a better mother to her now-grown children.
Snyder claimed that she had only recently been properly diagnosed — a claim belied by a nearly identical claim she made to a federal judge back in 2004.
"I essentially found that your lengthy criminal record could be explained away by the relatively recent diagnosis," Feeley told Snyder yesterday in Lawrence Superior Court, explaining his sentencing the last time.
"I actually felt fairly confident that under the care of a psychiatrist, you could maintain a non-criminal lifestyle," Feeley said. "I was wrong."
Almost immediately after being released from a six-month house arrest, probation officer David Barreto told the judge, Snyder was arrested and charged by Peabody police with heroin distribution following an investigation and several "hand-to-hand" transactions with an undercover officer this past spring.
She was recently indicted in that case and faces more state prison time if convicted.
In her most recent identity fraud cases, Snyder was found guilty of victimizing three people, one of whom was still waiting for restitution in the case, Barreto told the judge.
Snyder used a Lynn woman's identity to pass a forged check in North Andover and had the identifications of several others, as well as two checkbooks, insurance cards and counterfeit checks when she was arrested.
One of those people whose identity she stole, a Gloucester woman, had tried to help her by loaning her a car, forgetting the handbag inside.
Then while out on bail in that case, Snyder used a Manchester woman's identity to forge more checks and then go on a shopping spree across Massachusetts, prosecutors said at the time.
Snyder and her new, privately hired attorney Joseph Filippetti, admitted that she had violated the terms of her probation.
Snyder again made a pitch to the judge, dabbing at her eyes as she spoke.
"Your honor, we have a little history," she said, before turning her focus briefly on press coverage of her case. "Every time I say something, it gets misconstrued. It gets painted in the papers as if I'm a liar."
She went on to tell the judge that she had tried but couldn't get appointments with a psychiatrist while she was on probation.
"My whole life has been nothing but problems because of this disorder I have," she told the judge. "It's hard to take when you're smart. I think I'm smart."
Snyder received credit for about 21/2 months she's spent in custody since her arrest on the heroin charges but will have to serve a total of at least three years before she's eligible for parole.
Feeley did give Snyder one more break yesterday, waiving her obligation to repay the rest of the restitution to the Lynn woman whose identity was stolen.
Courts reporter Julie Manganis may be reached at 978-338-2521 or jmanganis@salemnews.com.
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