Sudbury judge puts faith in dealer
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A Sudbury judge said Wednesday he was taking 'a chance' on a young drug dealer who seems sincere in wanting to turn her life around.
Ontario Court Justice Andrew Buttazzoni made the comment as he sentenced Amanda Lachance to six months of jail.
The Crown had asked for a nine-month sentence.
"I'm going to give you a chance," Buttazzoni told her. "It will be a test of your level of commitment. You said all the right things to me and that could be very sincere. But, I don't know you ... I certainly get the impression you are sincere today. If you are being sincere, it would be counterproductive to have you in custody serving the equivalent of a nine-month sentence."
Buttazzoni then asked Lachance if she could handle a six-month jail sentence followed not by 12 months of probation, but 18, which included the condition she perform 100 hours of community service.
"Your decision today is do you want the nine months plus 12 months' probation Mr. (federal prosecutor Denys) Bradley is suggesting, or do you want the six months and 18 months probation your lawyer is suggesting?" he asked. "I'm giving you an alternative. If you are not sincere, I will see you back."
"I would like to do the 100 hours (of community service)," replied Lachance. "Thank you, your honour."
Earlier, Lachance told Buttazzoni she was trying to clean up her act.
"I know I have made a lot of wrong decisions. I know that. I am not trying to get out of it. I did go to treatment when I was on bail ... The time I went to go to (further) treatment for one week, I felt the urge (to use drugs) was too strong. I called my mom and turned myself in.
"I do want to better my life. I have a supporting family and want to go back to where my mom is ... I do want to get more counselling. I'm doing schooling while I am incarcerated at the moment. I don't want to hang around with the people I was hanging around with."
Lachance, 28, had pleaded guilty to crack cocaine possession for the purpose of trafficking last July, but sentencing was delayed to allow her to attend a 21-day drug treatment program in North Bay.
She completed that program, but then breached some of her bail conditions in November and served a short period in custody.
Upon her release, Lachance embarked on an in-house treatment program. After one week, she decided to turn herself in to police in late January for sentencing on her crack cocaine charge.
The court heard police received a tip in early January 2016 that Lachance and another person would be returning from southern Ontario with a large amount of cocaine. Surveillance was set up on Highway 69 South on Jan. 7 and on that day, a Nissan Altima connected to Lachance was seen heading north on the highway. The vehicle was stopped and two people were inside: Lachance, the driver, and a male passenger.
Lachance had 0.12 grams of cocaine in a jacket pocket and another 0.16 grams in her chest area. While at police headquarters in Greater Sudbury, a secondary search turned up 28 grams of crack cocaine.
The estimated street value of the cocaine was $2,800.
Michel said Lachance, who is a cancer survivor and has some bi-polar tendencies, has only a Grade 10 education. He said that at 12, Lachance was sexually abused and went to live with a relative in the Kitchener area. That move was "not the right thing to do," said Michel, because Lachance started to use marijuana and then got into harder drugs.
But at age 22, said Michel, Lachance cleaned herself up and stayed clean for two-and-a-half years. But, a new relationship with a person who was using drugs got her back into the drug lifestyle.
While in jail, Lachance has been upgrading her education and got into the suboxone program. Michel said Lachance plans to move to Verner to live with her mother, get counselling help in Sturgeon Falls, finish her high school and then attend college.
"In her own words, she is still young," said Michel. "She made a mess of things in her young life, but she wants to get on with her life ... She seems to be sincere in what she says. She has motivation and a clear vision of what she wants to do. "¦ She has a lot of history she has to deal with."
Bradley said Lachance had a dangerous drug.
"Crack cocaine is one of those dangerous, insidious drugs that cause great harm, not only to the user but the community as a whole," he said.
Bradley, in addition to asking for a nine-month sentence, sought a 10-year weapons ban, an order that Lachance provide a genetic sample to the national DNA databank and that all seized items be forfeited.
Buttazzoni granted the weapons ban, the forfeiture and the DNA order.
As a result of the guilty plea, Bradley withdrew two other drug-related charges Lachance was facing.
HCarmichael@postmedia.com