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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A 60-year-old Yellowknife man who urinated on the carpet in the entrance of a downtown grocery store was sentenced to 135 days in jail Monday for that and two other recent criminal convictions.

"I'm very sorry to Extra Foods for what I did," Joe Poodlat told the court just before receiving his sentence. "Next time if I want to pee, I better look around."

Poodlat - tanned but small and thin, and with receding salt-and-pepper hair - admitted to being an alcoholic who can become so intoxicated as to be oblivious to his surroundings.

He had been found guilty of mischief, following a trial in June, for urinating on the carpet in the middle of the afternoon on March 15. Store staff had described him as intoxicated and leaning against a wall for balance at the time, and he was well-known for panhandling outside the entrance of the business.

He was also sentenced for another charge he had pleaded guilty to - for exposing himself on a bench along the McMahon Frame Lake Trail in the early evening of June 13. According to the facts read in court, the RCMP, responding to multiple complaints, found Poodlat on a park bench shirtless and with his pants around his knees. According to some witnesses, he had been masturbating.

"It was a hot day, that," Poodlat said in his address to the court. "I was drinking - oh man, I was gone."

As well, he was sentenced Monday for breaching a court order to remain sober - a charge that also stemmed from an incident outside Extra Foods - and a charge to which he had pleaded guilty.

Poodlat's lawyer, Tracy Bock, described his client as an alcoholic his whole life and basically homeless.

Crown prosecutor Duane Praught pointed to Poodlat's lengthy criminal record which, he said, starts in Cambridge Bay in 1972 and includes 80 convictions - many of them for failing to follow court orders and two of a sexual nature. He also spoke of the negative effect on the community, including Extra Foods "losing customers who don't want to frequent stores where that sort of thing goes on" and "discouraging people from using the trail and the areas around Frame Lake."

Judge Garth Malakoe sentenced Poodlat to 45 days for the mischief conviction, 30 days for breaching the court order and 60 days for the public exposure, plus one year of probation. The offender served 10 days in jail awaiting his sentence as he was originally scheduled to be sentenced in late July but showed up drunk for that court appearance and was arrested.

In deciding on an appropriate sentence, Malakoe said he was relying less on Poodlat's criminal record than on a punishment that would make him think twice about his actions and make him aware of how the public feels about them.

Malakoe agreed with Bock's recommendation that Poodlat should serve his sentence at the South Mackenzie Correctional Centre in Hay River, where he may receive treatment for his alcoholism.

Conditions of his probation mean that, on release, Poodlat has to stay at least 10 metres away from the downtown Extra Foods store entrance and parking lot, and off the Frame Lake Trail.

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