DRUG ADDICT SAYS SNITCH LABEL PUTS HER IN DANGER

A drug addict asked a judge to send her to a different jail because
she fears being attacked after being labelled a snitch.

Tammy Mai Donelan, 33, of 64 Sunset Dr. but formerly of Minto pleaded
guilty Tuesday in provincial court to a laundry list of charges,
totalling 10 in all.

She admitted to:

* April 29 counts of using a stolen credit card and breaching her
probation;

* May 1 counts of theft from Sears, assault on a store security
official with a syringe, possession of stolen credit cards and
cheques, and breach of probation;

* a May 2 count of breaching her probation by failing to report to a
probation officer;

* and June 16 counts of theft of a bottle of liquor, possession of
cocaine and breach of probation.

Crown prosecutor William Corby withdrew May 14 charges of obtaining
transportation by taxi under false pretenses and breach of probation.

Sentencing was set over to July 19 to allow for the preparation of a
pre-sentence report and victim-impact statement.

Donelan was remanded into custody last week after a bail
hearing.

Duty counsel Doug Smith requested on Donelan's behalf Tuesday that she
be remanded to the provincial jail in Madawaska.

People who are incarcerated in court in Fredericton are customarily
sent to the Saint John Regional Correctional Centre.

Smith said there are safety concerns that would arise if Donelan was
sent back to the Saint John jail.

He said that she is seen as "a rat" in the Saint John facility and it
would be safer for her in the jail in northern New Brunswick.

Judge Mary Jane Richards granted the request.

Evidence presented at Donelan's bail hearing last week was subject to
a ban on publication, but that ban is no longer in effect after her
guilty pleas.

At the hearing, Det. Tim Sowers of the Fredericton Police Force
testified Donelan has a four-gram-a-day cocaine habit that she
supports in part through prostitution.

Donelan confirmed those details in her testimony.

"I have a really bad drug problem," she said, noting she sometimes
prostituted herself to get the money for drugs.

She said she wants to get out of that life.

"I'm not going back out on the streets. It's not who I am," she
said.

Sowers said the assault charge Donelan faced arose after she was
detained by loss-prevention officers at Sears on May 1.

She was taken to a security office at the store, he said, where she
became enraged.

Donelan produced a syringe, told the security official she'd just used
it to shoot up some cocaine and now it was filled with air, Sowers
said.

When police arrived on the scene, Sowers said, she blocked the door to
the office to prevent them from coming in.

At the end of that show-cause hearing, Richards ordered that Donelan
be held in custody pending the outcome of the case.

She said she believed that Donelan would continue to commit crimes if
she were to be released.