JUDGE WANTS TO KNOW IF INMATE WAS HIGH ON DRUGS

SAINT JOHN - Judge Alfred Brien has put off sentencing of an inmate
who said he was "whacked-" or high on drugs - when he caused more than
$900 damage to a toilet and his cell-door window at the Saint John
Regional Correctional Centre last Dec. 5.

The judge wanted to see if William Nichols Worden was telling the
truth.

When the judge asked Crown prosecutor John Henheffer if what Worden
said truly was the case, Henheffer said it likely was, but there was
nothing in his records confirm it.

"I want to know," Brien said Thursday, before adjourning sentencing of
21-year-old Worden to 9:30 a.m. next Thursday.

Worden had entered guilty pleas to both charges and had requested,
through duty counsel Marty Fineberg, that his sentencing not be put
off.

"He told me at the time (of the offences) he was whacked, in other
words, high on drugs," Fineberg told the court. "He says there are
lots of drugs out there "| he always gets high in jail."

Fineberg said he thought it a "sad comment" about the availability of
drugs in jail, "But I guess that's the reality of life."

In relating the facts of the case, Henheffer had made no mention of
drug use on the day Worden broke a toilet in the cell and then used a
piece of the porcelain to crack the window in his cell. But the
prosecutor did speak of Worden's strange behaviour in that, just
before the incident, "He said he would like to apologize in advance,
but would not say what for."

Saying he didn't know how much chance there was of the defendant's
making restitution, Henheffer asked for a further term of
incarceration for Worden.

The defendant's use of salty language, even as he discussed his prior
record from the prisoner's box, didn't sit well with the judge. He
told him to watch his language when he returns to court.