Former sophomore Isa Madyun skirted jail time after his father swayed a judge to reduce the admitted marijuana dealer’s sentence to parole.
The sentencing hearing Tuesday was postponed to Wednesday after D.C. Superior Court Judge Truman Morrison III heard Madyun’s father speak. The judge said he was swayed by the parent’s statement to give the former sophomore the lighter sentence to be served in the students’ home.
Instead of 45 days in jail, Madyun needs to complete 300 community service hours while on parole. If the former student violates parole, he will have to serve 180 days in jail.
“There’s no way that he can justify selling drugs or using drugs,” father Richard Madyun said before the court. “I don’t think going to jail is going to help him.”
Richard Madyun added that his son’s offense would be taken seriously at home. He stressed that he had worked hard to send his son to GW and said the student had no financial need to deal drugs.
Madyun said at Tuesday’s hearing that the University had expelled him because of the drug charges.
The sentencing delay was necessary to determine if the New Jersey judicial system could parole Madyun for D.C.
Madyun, who plead guilty Dec. 20 to possession with the intent to distribute marijuana, said in a statement that he felt predestined to be a drug dealer at GW because of his Islamic religion.
“Allah determined that (Madyun) had to become a drug dealer at GW,” Morrison read from the former student’s statement.
Madyun was arrested in November 2006 when a Guthridge Hall community director received an anonymous tip about the student’s room. Upon searching the room, University Police officers found a gallon size Ziploc bag full of marijuana, $3,000 in cash, two digital scales, a manual grinder and a coffee grinder.
“Suspension and expulsion are not doled out lightly by the University,” she added. “Violence and distribution of drugs are violations that are taken care of most seriously.”
At the hearing Tuesday he expressed remorse for his actions.
“I truly apologize to the community and everyone who has been affected by this,” he said. “I do, in my heart, deeply feel contrite.”
