A local man who received a second chance to turn his life around apparently blew it and will be heading back to prison.

David Lusk, 33, residence not listed, was arrested in Logan County for violation of his drug court agreement on Dec. 1. He was booked at the regional jail at 4:30 p.m. that day.

Lusk went before Logan Circuit Judge Roger Perry on Dec. 21 for sentencing. Originally Lusk had been arrested on cultivation of marijuana charges, according to Prosecutor John Bennet.

Judge Perry explained that Lusk was given a second chance through the Drug Court program, but was apparently not successful and that usually the agreement for Drug Court defendants is that if they do not comply with their requirements that they then serve out the sentence they agreed to when they gave their guilty plea to get into the alternative sentencing program.

"There are no good answers to this," Judge Perry said, sentencing Lusk to one to five years of prison with credit for time served. Lusk was turned over to corrections officers to be transported to the Division of Corrections.

Another case was delayed on Dec. 17. The case was scheduled for 1 p.m. in Logan Magistrate Court and everyone was there on time. However the hearing did not begin until 2:45 p.m. By that time, Logan Police Department Patrolman J.R. Adkins was getting concerned as he had to be elsewhere at 3 p.m. and West Logan Police Chief Robert Ward was exasperated at the delays.

Adkins explained that he had arrested Meade (who was on probation at the time) for breaking into an automobile in March of 2009. While the probation office was looking for Meade in regards to those charges, Meade was also arrested on April 15, 2009 for a fraudulent scheme after he allegedly ripped off several people by claiming to be selling apple butter and other products for local churches in the West Logan area.

Following that arrest, Meade had asked for the charges to be dropped, in return cooperating with law enforcement.

However, Meade never paid restitution to his victims, which was also a part of his agreement, Chief Ward told Chris White. Reportedly there were other problems with Meade's not abiding by the agreement as well and he was arrested yet again, this time by the West Virginia State Police for burglary, petit larceny, fleeing and probation violation on Sept. 25 after he was seen leaving a residence that had been robbed.

Meade allegedly entered the home of the victim when nobody was there and took several items. When he was arraigned on those charges by an angry Magistrate Leonard Codispoti, Meade claimed he did not commit the offense, saying he was asked to feed some chickens at the residence.

"How can you be so stupid to do this while on probation?" Codispoti asked Meade, noting he faced other charges in Lincoln County too.

On Thursday, Magistrate Dwight Williamson noted that attorney Rebecca Mick had been appointed to Meade's case when the agreements had been made, but had been removed from the case, effectively leaving Meade without council, and that Meade would have to go through the required legal paperwork to get another attorney.

Assistant Prosecutor Chris White explained the charges against Meade of tampering with a vehicle, driving on a suspended license and obtaining goods under false pretenses and the possible penalties. He also noted that in order to enter a plea agreement, Meade would have to pay restitution to his victims. During his original hearing, Mick had told the magistrate that Meade was sorry for what he had done and would happily pay restitution to them. He never repaid his victims and was arrested again later in a burglary case.

Meade told Magistrate Williamson he was in court for a probation violation and that he had been accepted into the Drug Court program and that he thought his charges were all dismissed when he agreed to cooperate with police.

Williamson said the car tampering case was dismissed according to the file, but there were questions as to whether or not Meade had met the requirements for dismissal and that Meade would have to get another attorney appointed to his case and noted there was nothing in the file showing Meade had followed through on any of the agreements.

Chief Ward noted that all Meade would have had to have done to have stayed out of trouble was to pay the $30 restitution to his victims, but he had not.

"He could have gotten the money to do that by mowing two lawns," Ward said.

Williamson reset the hearing again for two weeks.

Ward told the Logan Banner that he was disappointed in the entire matter which had dragged on for three hours with no justice for any of Meade's victims.

"The victims didn't come down here today because it would have cost them more time off of work than they would have recovered, anyway," Ward explained. "He was on probation when he did these things and he agreed to plead to that, which shows guilt. He didn't follow through with his agreement and he should have been sent back behind bars, not given the opportunity to victimize more people."