MALONE - An Akwesasne woman was sent to prison on Monday for a 2006 conviction for attempting while intoxicated to drive into another woman’s propane tank and blow up her house.

Venus Swamp, 44, will spend the next one to three years in a state correctional facility plus pay $434.55 restitution.

According to the Franklin County District Attorney’s Office, Swamp intentionally drove her car into Lois Tarbell’s propane tank while highly intoxicated on May 21, 2005.

“We were surprised it didn’t blow up,” District Attorney Derek Champagne said, adding that the tank became dislodged and Swamp’s vehicle sustained extensive damage. “She obviously had a huge alcohol and substance abuse problem at the time.”

Swamp was under probationary supervision while the case was pending, but allowed to go to Saranac Lake for in-patient substance abuse treatment on Feb. 9, 2006. She was unsuccessfully discharged and fled to Canada.

Swamp was arrested Sept. 13 of last year on new, unrelated assault and harassment charges in the United States, Champagne said, which led to police discovering she had an active arrest warrant.

In other county court action before Judge Robert G. Main Jr. on Monday, an Akwesasne man denied felony drug sale charges.

Owen Swamp, 35 is being held in lieu of $10,000 bail or $20,000 bond for one count each of third-degree criminal sale and possession of a controlled substance.

A Dec. 6, 2012 grand jury indictment alleges that he sold cocaine and possessed the drug with the intent to sell it on Oct. 25 of last year.

The case is scheduled for a pre-trial conference on Jan. 17.

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