Vietnam vet sentenced for drug offenses
Despite trying to blame his troubles on a murdered man and the Vietnam War, Patrick Dugan, 56, of Kekaha, was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday in Fifth Circuit Court.
Dugan, a Vietnam combat veteran and a former federal prisoner, was convicted on charges of promotion of a dangerous drug (crystal methamphetamine) and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Dugan and his attorney, public defender James Itamura, pleaded for mercy to Judge George Masuoka before his sentencing, but to no avail.
“He is a combat veteran and he has serious medical problems (Agent Orange complications) from which he’s suffering,” Itamura said.
“I am a good person,” Dugan said, his hands shaking. “I rescued six to eight tourists from the ocean in my 33 years here.”
He added that “it’s been years” since he was in federal prison on earlier drug offenses.
In his latest trouble, Dugan blamed the drugs found in his house last spring on a friend, Jeff Brisebois. Brisebois could have no say in Dugan’s allegations, since he’s dead, shot in the head by his daughter’s boyfriend, Matthew Blankswade, soon after Dugan’s arrest.
Blankswade was recently sent to prison for 20 years to life on second-degree murder charges in connection with Brisebois’s June 26, 2000 death.
Dugan, trembling, unshaven and gray-haired, listened as Masuoka told him, “Since 1967, you have been in contact with the courts. In your kitchen (in Kekaha last spring, officers found) a glass pipe with residue of crystal methamphetamine, one rolled cigarette that appeared to be marijuana, a digital scale, various packets (of drugs), two plastic syringes, three ziplock bags with crystal meth in them and then you have (a) firearm.
“Under the circumstances, the court will sentence you to five years with a mandatory minimum of two and a half years.”
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
