On the first night she was legally allowed to drink, Nikki Rahman was arrested on a warrant related to her fourth driving under the influence conviction.

When Rahman turned 21 on Sunday, it had been 10 days since she failed to show up at a revocation of probation hearing at the Burleigh County Courthouse. A warrant for her arrest had been issued Sept. 4. A bail bondsman found Rahman on Sunday night at a Bismarck bar, just as she was ordering a shot, Burleigh County Assistant State's Attorney Ty Turner said Tuesday afternoon during Rahman's revocation of probation hearing.

Rahman on Tuesday admitted two allegations on a petition for revocation of probation in two different cases. She was convicted in 2006 of Class Cfelony forgery and Class A misdemeanor theft of property and was convicted in 2007 of Class A misdemeanor driving under the influence, her fourth such offense since 2006.

The allegations she admitted to were that she was terminated from the Drug Court program and drank alcohol in July, both violations of the conditions of her release.

South Central District Judge Bruce Haskell resentenced Rahman to three years in prison, with a recommendation that she be placed at Tompkins Rehabilitation and Corrections Unit in Jamestown for treatment, on the forgery revocation, with concurrent 180-day and one-year sentences for the DUI and theft revocations.

The sentence was similar to one recommended by Turner, who asked for 180 days in jail for the DUI revocation to be followed by five years with two and a half years suspended and five years of supervised probation for the forgery revocation and one year for the theft revocation.

Turner said Rahman's fourth DUI came "just hours before she was to check in" to serve a 60-day sentence for her third DUI. She had received a deferred sentence for the forgery, which was changed to a suspended sentence the first time her probation was revoked, Turner said. She entered the Drug Court program, which is an alternative to prison in which participants report to a probation officer, take part in addiction counseling and submit to alcohol and drug tests.

Probation officer Penny Blotsky told Haskell she agreed with Turner's recommendation and rendition of events in the cases.

"It seemed to me Ms. Rahman really had no regard for the conditions of Drug Court or the conditions of probation," she said.

Assistant public defender Travis Finck, representing Rahman at the hearing, said he was concerned about a sentence that would put Rahman back on probation, given her struggles while on supervision.

"She's not a candidate for probation," he said.

Finck recommended a two-year sentence for the forgery revocation, with concurrent sentences for the DUI and theft revocations. The allegations upon which her probation was being revoked were not "minimal" but at least were not new criminal offenses, he said.

Haskell agreed that Rahman was not a candidate for probation due to her failure while being supervised. However, he disagreed that the things she had done to lose her freedom were small matters.

"I disagree that these are minimal allegations,"he said, adding that she had not taken the opportunities she had been given as a Drug Court participant and instead tried to "deceive the people who were trying to help her."

The judge said he also considered her failure to appear at her Sept. 4 revocation of probation hearing significant, as well as the fact that she was found drinking in a bar. He said Rahman is intelligent and has potential, but needs to work to meet that potential.

"We can blame the drinking and drugs all we want, but it's all the choices a person makes," Haskell said.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@bismarcktribune.com.)