By Judy Harrison
Bangor Daily News staff writer
BANGOR — A Caribou man was sentenced Dec. 5 in U.S. District Court to three years and 10 months in federal prison for smuggling oxycodone across the border.
Shawn Bernard, 30, was indicted in February by a federal grand jury along with his father, Charles Bernard, 69, of Caribou. They were charged with importation of controlled substances after three oxycodone pills were discovered on Shawn Bernard when the two men crossed the border on Aug. 31 at Fort Fairfield.
Both men pleaded guilty to the charge this summer. Charles Bernard, who is being held without bail, is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 16.
Just before he was sentenced, Shawn Bernard apologized to his family and friends, although none of them were in the courtroom. He told U.S. District Judge John Woodcock that his addiction got out of control after his mother’s death in 2010. His appendix ruptured the same year, nearly causing his death, he told the judge.
“I self-medicated and lived recklessly,” he said. “I regret the time not spent with my family.”
Woodcock told Shawn Bernard that he was not the victim of his own crimes.
“You live in Caribou,” the judge told him. “You grew up in Caribou. You are a resident of Aroostook County. You sneak drugs across the border and deal them to your friends in the community. You are engaging in an act of betrayal. By dealing drugs, you have caused untold misery and mischief and heartache to the people of Aroostook County.
“You involved your own father in your drug dealing,” Woodcock continued. “I can’t imagine it, Mr. Bernard. I can’t imagine what you did to your father. Your father will go to jail because of you. You should be ashamed and profoundly sorry for that.”
The younger Bernard admitted to smuggling oxycodone pills across the border about 100 times, bringing between five and 30 into Maine on each trip. His father drove the car because Shawn Bernard does not have a driver’s license and also to help his son feed his addiction to prescription painkillers, according to court documents.
Shawn Bernard’s attorney, Joseph Bethony of Bangor, said after the sentencing that his client was held responsible for bringing 500 20-milligram oxycodone pills across the border between January and August 2011.
In addition to prison time, Woodcock sentenced Shawn Bernard to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay a $2,000 fine.
