Elgin woman pleads guilty to smuggling Xanax into DuPage County jail
A former Elgin hairdresser pleaded guilty Friday to bringing illegal drugs into DuPage County jail.
Jenifer Perik, 44, of the 300 block of Gladstone Lane, now faces up to 14 years in prison because she committed the new felony while still on probation for a previous aggravated identity theft case.
Perik last August completed a 120-day jail sentence in that case - in which she used a 93-year-old woman's credit card to buy fertility drugs and other items.
Immediately upon her release, Perik was charged with bringing and the drugs into the jail.
Prosecutors said deputies discovered 15 Xanax pills in Perik's cell on Aug. 3, 2016, when they were gathering her belongings to move her to a different pod in the jail. They said Perik admitted to bringing 24 Xanax pills into the jail when she surrendered on July 8 by concealing them under her breast.
Perik's attorney has argued that she has been under continuous doctor's care and that possession of the prescription medication is specifically authorized by the jail.
Sheriff's officials said, at the time, that Perik was not strip-searched upon entering the jail because there was no probable cause to do so.
According to court documents, Perik suffers from "depression with suicidal tendencies, which has been aggravated by postnatal/postpartum depression."
Between August and December 2014, Perik used the elderly woman's credit card 39 times to ring up nearly $6,100 in charges.
Perik spent more than $3,000 on cellphone and communication services. The remaining $3,000, Assistant State's Attorney Diane Michalak said, was spent on fertility vitamins and donor sperm from a Virginia-based fertility website.
Perik gave birth to a daughter on Nov. 17, 2015, as a result of one of the five sperm samples she purchased with the victim's credit card.
Michalak said Perik had been styling both the victim's and the victim's daughter's hair for several years. The victim's daughter noticed the charges in April 2015 and called police.
The single largest charge to the Virginia clinic - $2,200 - was made on Christmas Day, 2014.
Michalak said the clinic told police that Perik said she was the victim's granddaughter.
Perik is currently free on $25,000 bail but will be sentenced on Oct. 4.