NA Member Mathew Nation and Drug Court Graduate, arrested for hitting a woman in the head with a bottle in a bar, 3 days after graduating Drug Court!
His previous arrests were burglary, theft, obstruction of justice,domestic violence and drug charges!
Drug Court graduate sentenced to jail, probation following bar incident
Apr 13, 2012 12:06 PM EDT
By RODNEY HART
Herald-Whig Staff Writer
A Quincy man who got into a bar altercation last June, three days after graduating from Adams County Drug Court, was sentenced Friday to two years probation and ordered to serve 90 days in the Adams County Jail.
Matthew Nation, 27, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery in connection with a June 19 incident at the Cedar Club, 2001 Cedar. Investigators say Nation struck a woman in the head with a bottle or glass, and two other women were also charged in connection with the incident.
Nation was not permitted to be in the bar because he was still on probation for a 2009 felony drug conviction. He spent nearly two years in Drug Court, a more intense form of probation, and graduated on June 16, 2011.
Nation apologized before being sentenced by Judge William Mays.
“I have no excuse, and I accept the consequences for the choices I’ve made,” Nation said.
The defendant told the judge he has not had a drink since the incident, has a full-time job, has reconnected with family and is attending church. Nation said he also trying to get custody of his young son.
“I’m making every possible change that I can,” he said.
Mays, who oversees Drug Court, said he was disappointed in Nation when learning he had been arrested three days after his Drug Court graduation.
“It led me to believe you hadn’t learned a whole lot when in Drug Court,” the judge said.
But the judge said sending Nation to prison would have been the “easy answer.”
Assistant State’s Attorney Josh Jones asked for a prison sentence. In exchange for Nation’s guilty plea, a petition to revoke his probation was dropped and his prison sentence cap was 2 1/2 years.
Jones noted Nation had prior convictions for burglary, theft, obstruction of justice, domestic battery and delivery of cannabis.
“He hit somebody in the head with a beer bottle or glass when he shouldn’t have been in there in the first place,” Jones said.
Nation’s attorney, Riff Scholz, called the bar incident a “relapse” and said his client had “earned and deserved the right not to go to prison” and had turned his life around, thanks to Drug Court.
Mays ordered Nation to pay about $5,500 in restitution. He gave Nation 360 days in the Adams County Jail, but only ordered him to serve 90, with the rest stayed pending review.
Two others were also arrested after the bar incident. Courtney Cookson, 21, was given supervision after pleading guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct, and Elizabeth Warning, 24, received 18 months probation after pleading guilty to misdemeanor battery.
Here is an interesting novel written about corruption in Alcoholics Anonymous and a sponsor overdosing on herion. ‘The Next Right Thing’ by Dan Barden
http://www.salisburypost.com/Entertainment/042912-book-next-right-thing-qcd
A Judge sentencing a violent felon to AA and NA. All in a day”s work for judges, mandating AA and NA with the help of AA and NA encouraging the courts to send them there criminals.
Felony sentencings during November 2011, as reported by Stearns County:William Edward Mezzano, 28, Sauk Rapids; third-degree assault, Jan. 1, 2011; imposition of sentence stayed on five years probation and 30 days in jail, serving 15 days in jail and 15 days on electronic home monitoring or complete 120 hours of community service work in lieu of the electronic home monitoring, fined $500 plus surcharges or complete community service work in lieu of the fine, ordered to pay restitution as determined by the agent – left open for 30 days, abstain from alcohol and nonprescribed mood-altering substances, undergo random urinalysis, provide a DNA sample, attend Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous and provide verification to agent and continue counseling. Judge: Scherer.