Adam Bartlett, 39, was convicted of armed robbery and other charges from a 2015 robbery of a Chicopee pharmacy.
SPRINGFIELD -- A former Hadley police officer told a Hampden Superior Court judge Thursday that his 2015 arrest for a drug store robbery and 60-mile high-speed chase saved his life.
Judge Daniel A. Ford sentenced Adam Bartlett, 39, to a total of three and one half years in jail and three years probation. Ford agreed at the defense's request to recommend Bartlett serve the sentence at the Hampshire County Correctional Center.
A jury convicted Bartlett Monday of armed robbery, attempt to commit a crime, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, resisting arrest and failure to stop for police.
Bartlett worked as a Hadley patrolman from 2005 until he resigned for personal reasons in 2013.
Both Bartlett and his lawyer David G. Mintz detailed for the judge Bartlett's struggle with addiction to opioids, which began with prescribed painkillers. Bartlett demanded opioids when he went into the Rite Aid pharmacy on Sept. 25, 2015.
Now, he credits his arrest with saving his life.
That arrest came after he and his wife at the time, Rebecca Bartlett, led police on a chase from Chicopee to Framingham that ended when the couple ran out of gas.
Adam Bartlett went into the pharmacy while Rebecca Bartlett waited in the car outside. She drove during the chase.
A pharmacy employee unlocked the safe and grabbed three bottles. Each contained a tracking device and about 25 placebo pills rather than real opioids.
Rebecca Bartlett, 42, pleaded guilty in November and was sentenced by Judge Mary-Lou Rup to two and a half years in the Western Massachusetts Regional Women's Correctional Center in Chicopee, plus three years probation.
Adam Bartlett, who cried through some of the sentencing hearing, said he has been amazed by the support from his family, the Phoenix House treatment program and other addiction recovery groups.
In the courtroom were about two dozen people including family, Phoenix House staff and others who Bartlett said have helped him in recovery. He is also sponsoring others now in their recovery, Mintz said.
"If I'm not sober I can't be there for anyone else," Bartlett told Ford.
Ford said he respected Bartlett and agreed with Mintz that Bartlett is not the same person he was when he was arrested. He said although Bartlett indicated to the employee he was armed, he was going to sentence him in keeping with guidelines for a person who was an unarmed robber.
But, the judge said, he has seen a lot of drug addicted defendants and "most of them don't pull stunts like this."
Ford said as serious as the robbery was, the most serious crime was the high-speed chase on the Massachusetts Turnpike which endangered law enforcement and the public.
Mintz asked for a sentence of probation on some counts and time served -- 281 days in jail awaiting trial -- on other counts for Bartlett.
"I don't agree with the defense that he should walk out of here today," Ford said.
Assistant District Attorney Nina A. Vivenzio asked for a sentence of five years in state prison and three years probation.
She said the pharmacy employee was "a very, very brave young woman" who appeared to stay cool and collected.
Vivenzio said the woman said she was traumatized but had tried to compartmentalize that fear. According to Vivenzio, the woman said when she was told the trial was coming up she felt the trauma come back.
Vivenzio said the chase involved 19 state police cruisers and speeds exceeded 120 miles per hour.
Mintz said Adam Bartlett and Rebecca Bartlett "were in what I would call a pitt of despair" when they committed the crimes.
"He was a good cop. The was a good police officer," Mintz said. The drugs ruined that, he said.