DRUG DEALER AVOIDS JAIL

Sending to jail an ecstasy dealer who used a minor to sell the drug to undercover cops at a rave party would not benefit society, a Calgary judge said yesterday.  Justice Sal LoVecchio said time in custody would likely set Jeremy Tymiak back on his road to becoming a productive citizen.

"If, in fact, he's turned his life around, what useful purpose is served in disrupting all that?" LoVecchio asked Crown prosecutor Scott Couper.

"He's going to lose his job, he's going to be out of the home and no longer contributing to expenses ( if jailed )," the Queen's Bench judge said.

LoVecchio said a conditional sentence served in the community would act as a litmus test to determine if Tymiak has decided to follow the straight and narrow.

"If he hasn't turned his life around, in other words this is a big charade in anticipation of the sentencing, don't the conditions address all that?"

Tymiak, 21, pleaded guilty in April to a Feb.  2, 2002 charged of trafficking in a controlled substance.

He admitted selling two ecstasy pills to an undercover female officer at a rave party in the city's southwest.

Couper said the officer was approached by a 17-year-old who asked her if she wanted to make a purchase.

When she turned over $45, the teen went over to where Tymiak was waiting and retrieved the contraband.

When Tymiak was arrested, he had 38 more pills worth about $700 on him, said Couper.

Defence lawyer Pat Fagan said his client is now working in construction and plans to go to SAIT.

LoVecchio ordered Tymiak to serve six months of house arrest followed by six months under a 10 p.m.  to 6 a.m.  curfew and abide by other conditions.