One of the people convicted in a plot to steal a safe filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars of jewelry that belonged to the late Western Kentucky University provost Barbara Burch has requested an early release from prison.

Patricia Weisman, 67, appeared Monday in Warren Circuit Court with her attorney, William Butler, who filed a motion for Weisman to receive shock probation.

As of Monday, Weisman was 51 days into a 10-year prison sentence she received after pleading guilty to charges of first-degree facilitation to commit robbery and theft by unlawful taking of property valued at $10,000 or more by complicity.

Weisman was one of six people charged, and one of five currently incarcerated, in connection with the plot, which culminated in a home invasion on July 13, 2020, in which three men disguised as delivery drivers forced their way into the home on Smallhouse Road where the safe was kept.

A woman in the house, Doreen McCloud, was attacked and restrained, suffering ankle and leg fractures, and the safe was wheeled out of the home and taken to Tennessee, where the proceeds were split among the people involved in the plot, court records show.

Weisman had been a one-time friend of Burch, who died in January 2020, and Burch’s family, at one point living at their home for a short period of time.

Weisman and her late husband, Jeffery Weisman, were charged with a number of crimes after the plot was uncovered by the Bowling Green Police Department.

Jeffery Weisman died earlier this year while his case was pending, but his wife and four men, two of whom operated jewelry stores in Tennessee, would go on to plead guilty to a number of offenses and receive prison terms of varying length.

Butler filed the shock probation motion on behalf of Weisman last month. 

Shock probation is a form of early release available in Kentucky to certain criminal defendants, typically first-time offenders convicted of low-level felonies.

State law requires defendants to have served 30-180 days of their sentence before requesting shock probation, and the decision to grant or deny the motion is up to the judge who presided over the criminal case.

Butler said in court that Weisman’s age, her lack of a previous criminal record and a host of ongoing health concerns make her ideal for early release.

“She’s obviously frail and in poor health,” said Butler of Weisman, who entered the courtroom using a walker. “I think this is a case the shock probation statute was made for. These 51 days she has spent in state custody have definitely shocked her, no question about that.”

Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Kori Beck Bumgarner argued that the circumstances surrounding the theft called for Weisman to serve a significant portion of her sentence, saying that Patricia and Jeffery Weisman’s involvement was crucial toward carrying out the plot.

Warren Circuit Judge John Grise asked Bumgarner to specify the nature of Patricia Weisman’s involvement.

“She knew what was believed to be in the safe,” Bumgarner said. “There were times when this was about to fall apart and it was with Mrs. Weisman’s constant prodding that this not fall apart,” Bumgarner said.

Grise did not rule on the motion at Monday’s hearing, saying he would take it under advisement.

“I understand people are very upset with her because of the breach of trust … but I think we need to be very clear on what she did and did not do,” Grise said of Weisman. “Fifty-one days is not a lot of time when we’re talking about a violation of someone’s home and you did play a significant role in this.”