A cocaine-possession case that’s nearly 14 years old is just now working its way through Douglas County District Court.

Authorities originally arrested the defendant, Gustine Green, of Kansas City, Kan., in December 1989 after they stopped her car on Interstate 70 and allegedly found cocaine in a cigarette pack and an open bottle of grain alcohol on the back seat, according to court records. She made bond but skipped a January 1990 court date. That led District Judge Michael Malone to issue a warrant for Green’s arrest.

Authorities didn’t catch up with her until late last month, when she was arrested by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and booked into the county jail to answer to the original charges.

Dist. Atty. Christine Kenney wouldn’t go into detail about what caused such a long delay. But Green now says her name is Debra, not Gustine– and Kenney implied that may have something to do with the delay.

“In situations where we have been given a fake name to begin with it, it makes it virtually impossible for us to track that individual down,” she said.

Possession of cocaine was at the time a “Class C” felony. Today there’s no such felony classification in Kansas, a fact that could complicate sentencing if Green is convicted.

Prosecutors also will have a harder time than usual tracking down witnesses. Assistant Dist. Atty. Dan Dunbar on Wednesday asked the court for more time for that purpose. Of one of the Kansas Highway Patrol Troopers involved in the case, Dunbar said, “I think he’s still around.”

What hasn’t changed in 14 years is that Malone is still on the bench, and he wasn’t moved on Wednesday when Green’s court-appointed attorney, Keith White, asked him to dismiss the charges. White claimed Dunbar didn’t promptly issue a subpoena to one of the witnesses in the case and was being “lackadaisical.”

“The state may have been lackadaisical for a week, but your client was lackadaisical for 12 years,” Malone said, understating the actual delay.

Green, who according to court records is 48, uttered as she left the courtroom that she thought the state was trying to “railroad” her case.

She remains in the Douglas County Jail with bond set at $50,000.