Yellowknife man fined for drunken actions
Maria Canton
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 16/01) - Upset about not being served a second helping during an evening meal at the Salvation Army, a 24-year-old Yellowknife man will pay an $800 fine for pulling the fire alarm on his way out of the cafeteria.
He will also spend 35 days in jail for providing a bottle of vodka and two cases of Mike's Hard Lemonade to a 13-year-old girl, landing her in the hospital for two days with alcohol poisoning.
Christopher Arden pleaded guilty to both charges in territorial court on Tuesday. Court heard he had been drinking when both incidents happened.
"What can we say about a drunk who is mad because he can't have another serving (of food)?" said Judge Michel Bourassa.
"And about the providing alcohol charge...this is a 13-year-old girl, he supplied her with enough alcohol that she could have killed herself."
Several witnesses watched Arden pull the fire alarm on Sept. 16, 2000 at the Salvation Army.
In court, the accused said he was sorry about pulling the alarm and inconveniencing people, but because he had been drinking he has no memory of it.
The charge of providing alcohol to a minor happened on Dec. 9. The court heard Arden knew the girl because he is friends with her older brother.
Arden's lawyer told the court the girl approached him with $40 and asked him to specifically buy the vodka and Mike's Hard Lemonade, a mixture of beer and lemonade that is 5.2 per cent alcohol.
After Arden accommodated the girl, she went to a friend's house and became "highly intoxicated."
When she became ill, her friend called the girl's foster mom, who took her to Stanton Regional Hospital.
It was determined she had alcohol poisoning and she spent two days in the hospital recovering.
Upon her release, the girl and her foster mom went to the police station to report the incident.
Arden's lawyer said he provided the alcohol to her because he knew her and that he was not bootlegging (selling for profit), merely "facilitating her request."
Arden will serve his sentence intermittently.
