File photo courtesy of MHPS

By Alex McCuaig

Babitzke sentencing

City woman sentenced to five years for unlawful confinement, drug dealing

Nov 21, 2019 | 4:21 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – A Medicine Hat woman who was arrested on charges of trafficking methamphetamine and fentanyl while on release on robbery and extortion charges received a five-year sentence Thursday.

Theresa Babitzke, 54, was initially arrested in October 2018 after being charged in connection with an incident in which a woman was held captive overnight at the accused’s 13^th Avenue S.E. home.

The court heard Babitzke held the woman against her will overnight and that she was threatened and punched as well as struck with a metal pipe on the legs.

The victim was able to get a phone and call 911 the following morning but was not able to communicate with the dispatcher prior to the phone being hung up.

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A subsequent call back by the 911 operator saw Babitzke’s son tell the dispatcher the call was a mistake. However, city police were dispatched anyway and uncovered the circumstances of the unlawful confinement.

While on release from those charges, city police were tipped off Babitzke was selling methamphetamine and fentanyl from her 13^th Avenue home. She was arrested on July 22, 2019 in personal possession of nearly 200 grams of methamphetamine and an envelope with more than $5,500 in cash as well as a digital scale.

A search warrant turned up nearly 70 grams of fentanyl with a street value of $20,000 and cocaine at the woman’s home.

The court heard Babitzke has since been diagnosed with early onset dementia and while Judge Gordon Krinke recognized that as a difficult circumstance, in handing down a five-year sentence he told the court, “the protection of society comes first.”