Matt Tuggle has taken the good -- the birth of his daughter -- with the bad -- losing his job -- in the last two months.

The 20-year-old first-time dad from DeForest is a recovering OxyContin addict who has remained clean with the help of the Dane County Day Report and Treatment Program (DART), a program that's been in operation for about a year as a companion to the county's Drug Court.

DART puts some people charged with crimes who ordinarily would sit in jail into inpatient or outpatient drug treatment while their criminal cases are pending.

Since he was profiled in the State Journal on June 2 as part of a story on DART, Tuggle left the program after an increased testing regimen -- brought on by a positive drug test that was ultimately found to be erroneous -- would have made it too difficult for him to keep his job as a kitchen worker at a nursing home.

Tuggle's girlfriend gave birth to their daughter, Mischa, on June 5. But within days, Tuggle lost his job at the nursing home after all.

"They really didn't give a reason," he said, but he suspects it was because the nursing home learned from the State Journal story that he was a drug addict, even though by then he had been clean for more than six months with DART's help.

"That's life," Tuggle said. "What are you going to do?"

He said he has been looking for work but lives now on unemployment compensation. In the meantime, he said, he enjoys taking care of his daughter and is waiting for his turn on the waiting list for the county's Drug Court program, which has accepted him.

Drug Court is similar to DART, except that it deals with cases later in the legal process than DART. Tuggle is hoping to start Drug Court sometime late next month, he said.

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