Pubdate: Wed, 16 Aug 2006
Source: Coquitlam Now, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006Lower Mainland Publishing Group, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.thenownews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1340
Author: Jennifer Saltman, Staff Reporter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

CONDITIONAL SENTENCE AIMED AT HELPING LONGTIME ADDICT RECOVER

A Port Coquitlam provincial court judge handed down a conditional 
sentence earlier this month meant to help a longtime drug addict 
recover and stay out of "the revolving door of the courthouse."

Judge Marion Buller Bennett sentenced John Michael Durham, 48, to a 
six-month conditional sentence after he pled guilty to committing two 
break-ins in Coquitlam.

Durham pled guilty to breaking into a carport on Ingersoll Avenue on 
June 18, 2005. He was trying to leave by the rear gate when the 
homeowner's son chased him down and held him until police arrived.

Police searched Durham when he was arrested and was found to have 
drug paraphernalia on him as well as a small container containing 
what is believed to be heroin. Nothing had been stolen, but a $400 
saw had been moved closer to the carport exit.

Durham was released on bail and came to the attention of police again 
on Jan. 27, 2006 when he was caught breaking into a shed on Centennial Avenue.

He was found under a work bench inside of the shed with a bag and 
bolt-cutters nearby. When police searched him, they also found a pair 
of black gloves, a headlamp and a pair of scissors.

The Crown asked for jail sentences: time served for the first break 
and enter, plus a six-month jail sentence and probation on the second 
break and enter.

The defence asked Buller Bennett to consider a conditional sentence 
order so that Durham could get treatment for his substance abuse problem.

Durham has a lengthy criminal record going back to 1973, including 
prior convictions for robbery and theft under $5,000. He has also 
been a heavy heroin user since he was 10 years old.

"I have to give you credit for the fact that, at 48, you have 
realized it is time to deal with your heroin abuse problem," Buller 
Bennett said. "I will give you that chance, at least to get started. 
I think that if you can deal with your heroin addiction, you are 
going to stay out of court, you are going to stay out of trouble, and 
that is better for everyone. I do not think warehousing you in a jail 
is really going to accomplish much at this point in your life anyway."

Buller Bennett then sentenced Durham to two, six-month conditional 
sentences, to run concurrent with each other, with stipulations that 
he must abstain from possessing and consuming alcohol or other 
intoxicating substances and possessing any weapons or tools outside 
of his place of residence or employment. The judge also ordered that 
Durham reside at Wagner Hills Treatment program, obey the rules and 
regulations of the residence and program, not leave without the 
company of staff and take counselling and other programs as directed.

"This is not like probation where sooner or later the breach may or 
may not catch up to you; this is instant and it is final. So there is 
no trying to weasel your way out of any of these conditions," Buller 
Bennett stated.

Durham was also given one year of probation after finishing the 
conditional sentence.
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