VET'S DRUG CASE RESONATES WITH JUDGE

STUART - The Vietnam War gave Gerald Bighum three gunshot wounds, two
Bronze Stars and a case of post-traumatic stress disorder for which he
still receives benefits.

The most deadly wounds he has suffered, however, have been from a drug
addiction that has brought him in and out of jail for nearly two decades.

On Tuesday, Bighum, 61, of Hobe Sound, was back before a judge again,
asking for jail instead of prison for a February arrest possession of
cocaine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Bighum has previous arrests
for cocaine possession, sale or delivery of a controlled substance,
shooting into an occupied vehicle or dwelling, and battery.

The man hearing his case Tuesday, Circuit Judge Robert Belanger, said
knowing about Bighum's past tugged on his heartstrings. Belanger, a
former U.S. Marines captain, told Bighum he was a veteran, too.

"You know, you don't make it easy on the court," Belanger
said.

But Belanger said the arrest affidavit, which chronicles the search of
the man's house and the drugs that police found there, cast a shadow
over the service Bighum gave to his country.

Assistant State Attorney Adam Guzi also asked Bighum if he had ever
violated probation.

"I did violate," Bighum answered.

In the end, Belanger sentenced him to 12 months in the county jail
instead of sending him to prison. Belanger said he worries that the
crack cocaine Bighum abuses and his stints of incarceration when he
gets caught will eclipse his two Bronze Stars and become his legacy.

"I hope you live to be 100," Belanger said. "But you're getting to the
age where a two-or three-year Department of Corrections sentence
could be a life sentence."