Being too stoned to come to the door while on house arrest no excuse

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Being too stoned to open the door for police while on house arrest is not a reasonable excuse, according to a recent court ruling out of Newfoundland.

Jonathon Burke is serving 729 days of house arrest for two counts of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, committing an offence while possessing a weapon, failing a drug test within two hours of driving, two counts of failing to comply with a probation order, and occupying a motor vehicle knowing someone in the car had a prohibited or restricted firearm.

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The judge who sentenced him to house arrest last May for those crimes ordered that Burke, 25, must come to his door whenever a cop knocks.

On Jan. 11, at 2 a.m., “two peace officers went to Mr. Burke’s residence and loudly knocked on the front and back doors of the residence. They received no answer,” provincial court Judge Wayne Gorman wrote in a recent decision.

Burke “concedes” that he didn’t come to the door that night, said the decision.

“However, he says that he had a ‘reasonable excuse’ for having failed to do so: that he smoked a considerable amount of cannabis marijuana, causing him to fall asleep, resulting in him not being aware that the police were seeking his attendance at his door,” said the decision dated Jan. 24.

Burke “testified that he has been suffering from nightmares on a regular basis and having difficulty sleeping as a result,” said the decision.

“He sought medical assistance and was issued a prescription for cannabis marijuana. The prescription was for sixty grams a month.”

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Burke told the court he smoked some pot on the night in question and went to sleep around 9 p.m.

“He woke up about an hour later, smoked some more cannabis marijuana, and went back to sleep,” said the decision.

“He described falling into a ‘deep sleep.’”

Burke testified that “he consumed ‘a nice bit’ of cannabis marijuana” that night, and that he did not hear the two police officers knocking on his door.

The judge concluded that the Crown proved Burke failed to comply with the conditions of his house arrest and failed to establish that he had a reasonable excuse for having done so.

“A person bound by a conditional sentence order must take steps to comply with the order’s conditions,” Gorman said.

“If the respondent places themselves in a situation where compliance is not possible, then their failure to comply will not be reasonable. In this case, for instance, Mr. Burke placed himself in a position where compliance with the conditional sentence order became impossible. This was a voluntary choice made by him with full knowledge that a failure to comply could result. From an objective basis, this will never be reasonable.”

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The judge sentenced Burke on Jan. 27 for breaching the conditions of his house arrest.

“He got 30 days of his conditional sentence converted to jail time,” Mark Mills, a Stephenville lawyer who represented the federal Crown in this case, said Thursday.

“He’s still in jail for that.”

Burke will return to house arrest once he’s released.

“In theory, you can have your entire sentence converted to real jail,” Mills said. “But it’s pretty standard … for relatively minor breaches like that” to be sent to jail for a shorter period.

“It’s not like he was out drug dealing again or committing substantive criminal offences,” Mills said.

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