(BCN) -- An ex-San Jose police union manager is avoiding prison time after illegally importing opioids for foreign drug suppliers -- ending a scandal that started nearly two years ago. U.S. District Judge Eumi K. Lee sentenced Joanne Segovia to three years' probation and 100 hours of community service, after she confessed in October to running a yearslong illegal drug smuggling operation out of her home for a supplier in India. Federal prosecutors agreed with Segovia's attorney that the former office manager of the San Jose Police Officers' Association (SJPOA) -- who planned social events and coordinated fallen officer memorials -- wasn't motivated by greed, but addiction. "The story of Joanne Segovia is the story of years of heavy opioid addiction, drug importation, self-delusion, and some very poor choices. It is not, however, the story of a drug dealer," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tartakovsky wrote in a sentencing memo. "Drug dealers get into the business to make money. Segovia was losing money. In fact, she was hemorrhaging tens of thousands a year on her habit." Victim in deadly 7-car SF crash involving Tesla and Waymo identified Federal prosecutors initially accused Segovia of importing fentanyl. But at an August hearing -- in a case drawn out by repeat delays -- Tartakovsky said subsequent tests on a package they intercepted and initially identified as fentanyl was incorrect. Prosecutors revised charges against Segovia to attempting to smuggle Tapentadol, another highly addictive painkiller. A person convicted of smuggling the drug can be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison. The nearly two-year legal saga raised questions about the police union's oversight. Federal prosecutors issued a scathing rebuke of the union, accusing its lawyers of trying to hamstring the investigation despite publicly promising to cooperate. "The SJPOA announced publicly after the search of Segovia's office that it wished to cooperate with this investigation. Yet counsel for the SJPOA engaged in stonewalling, even threatening to 'seek judicial intervention' to stop the prosecution from reviewing Segovia's SJPOA email contents, though the SJPOA never followed through on its threat," Tartakovsky wrote. A police union representative was not immediately available for comment. In 2022, Homeland Security agents investigating a criminal network in India became aware of Segovia's involvement through a client list on the phone of an arrested local operative. Agents later learned Segovia's home address had been the destination of five shipments containing tens of thousands of Zolpidem, Tramadol and Tapentadol pills seized at ports of entry between 2019 and 2023. Records show another 61 parcels arrived at her home between 2015 and 2023 from various countries, labeled with innocent terms such as "Gift Makeup," "Chocolate and Sweets," "Food Supplement" and "Health Product." In early 2023, federal agents interviewed Segovia at her home. Segovia lied about the shipments and later tried to blame them on her housekeeper. Segovia expressed remorse in a December letter to the judge. "I have not taken one unprescribed pill or substance since the day my home was raided by Homeland Security. I never realized the magnitude of what I had done until a gun was pointed at me. I have never been in trouble with the law," Segovia wrote. "This was something I had only seen in movies. It was the most traumatic thing that has ever happened to me." She acknowledged her involvement likely harmed others. "Upon reflection, I may have helped enable the addictions and drug abuse of people I don't even know," she wrote. "This was not my intent, but I am very sorry, nonetheless." Copyright © 2025 Bay City News, Inc.