A young man who sold both cocaine and marijuana to an undercover cop has been sentenced to two years of house arrest.
Matthew Graham Cormier pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking for two sales he made to an undercover police officer in late 2010.
He first sold a half-ounce of marijuana to an undercover police officer on Oct. 7, 2010. The officer asked during that sale and other exchanges about whether Cormier could sell him cocaine and on Nov. 4 he obliged, selling him two grams.
Cormier was arrested shortly thereafter.
Federal crown prosecutor Kevin Short said sentences for trafficking, especially in cocaine, usually begin with a three-year prison term, but citing Cormier’s relative youth and his guilty plea he said a house arrest sentence was reasonable.
Short also said if Cormier was an active cocaine trafficker he would have faced a tougher sentence, but appears to have sold it to the officer only because of the request.
Cormier will be confined to his house for the first year of the term, except when he is at work or for a small number of other exemptions.
In the second year, he will be bound by a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. He will also have to perform 120 hours of community service work.
The disputed ownership of a case of a beer will cost one man 60 days in jail.
Richard Wayne Durocher, 26, pleaded guilty to two counts of uttering threats resulting in the jail term and an additional charge of failing to appear in court, which earned him a $500 fine.
Police were called on June 18, 2009 after an argument at a house where Durocher had been drinking with some friends. There was a heated exchange and Durocher threatened to come back to the house with a gun and shoot both of the people he was arguing with.
He was arrested a short time later, but failed to show up at his first court appearance.
Durocher was also put on probation for a year with a condition that he has no contact with the two victims in the case.
Alcohol blended with male bravado in a bizarre incident that will see a young man spend the next 18 months on probation.
Tanner James Latawiec, 19, pleaded guilty to causing a disturbance, uttering threats and breach of probation and received the probationary term along with a warning from Judge Bruce Garriock that if he didn’t follow court orders he would face jail in the future.
“If we run into this breach situation again it will no doubt be treated differently.”
Latawiec and a friend had been drinking the afternoon of May 18, 2011 when they made an ill-advised decision to go to a house in Oakmont.
Latawiec’s friend had an ex-girlfriend who was dating a man who lived in the home. Upset over the situation, Latawiec’s friend felt the best way to deal with it was to challenge the man to a fight and Latawiec went along for moral support.
When the inebriated pair arrived they didn’t find the man, but did find his older brother and threatened to hurt him and break his car windows, if he didn’t have his brother come out of the house to fight them.
Eventually the young man’s parents came out of the house to try and get the two to go away, but they were faced with more arguing and foul language.
Latawiec was on probation at the time with a condition that he not consume alcohol. He left before police arrived, but was arrested later.
Defence counsel Brad Leebody said it was a poor decision to go along with his friend and a poor decision to spend an afternoon drinking while on probation.
During the probation period, Latawiec will have to take any counselling recommended to him, will have to abstain completely from alcohol and have no contact with the two men in Oakmont, as well as stay two blocks from the house.
He was also ordered to pay a $250 fine for breaching probation.
