Canadian immigration judge sentenced to 1 1/2 years for sexual extortion of immigrant

A Canadian immigration judge was sentenced to 1 1/2 years imprisonment Thursday, July 29 for coercing a sexual relationship with a South Korean refugee. 51 year old Steve Ellis, immigration judge, lawyer, and former Toronto City Counselor, was found guilty of breach of trust and bribery after his guilty verdict on April 21. Ellis heard the case of a then 25 year old South Korean woman in July 2006, and during a meeting rigged by the victim's boyfriend on September 26, 2006 in a Toronto coffee house, said that “I really like you, and I really want to be friends with you.” After dumping his Filipina mistress, he promised the woman, “Don’t worry. I’m not going to be demanding. I’m not going to ask you to move in with me or anything like that. . . . I’m not going to fall in love with you.” The Crown proved that Ellis' "indecision" on the woman's refugee status would become a "yes" if she slept with him.

Ellis' 1 1/2 year sentence was a compromise between the Crown's insistence of a 3 to 3 1/2 year sentence and the defense's wish for probation. Superior Court Justice Thea Herman said that Ellis' sexual extortion “breached the significant trust placed in him and undermined public confidence in Canada’s immigration and refugee system." Herman also said that the principles of denunciation and deterrence are the major factors in breach of trust cases and said that he took advantage of his power over her as a male judge versus a female immigrant who had already been abused by men.

During the guilty verdict, she said, “There is no doubt that Mr. Ellis intended to use his public office — in particular, his considerable power over Ms. Kim — for his own benefit, that is, for an intimate relationship with Ms. Kim. Mr. Ellis literally held Ms. Kim’s life in his hands. He toyed with her right up to the end.”

Herman said the defence established Ellis suffers from bipolar disorder that may have impaired his judgment but “he knew what he was doing was wrong. . . . This was not an impulsive act.” However, the judge said Ellis had an “otherwise unblemished career” and this was “not a pattern of conduct.”

The victim, Ji Hye Kim, appeared at sentencing with her husband Brad Tripp, and said afterwards that they wish to move on with their lives.

Suburban Toronto police officer charged with physical, sexual assault on "husband"

A female police officer assigined to Burlington, ON, has been charged with sexual assault, forcible confinement, and 3 counts of assault after a man, believed to be her common-law husband, filed charges against her. According to a spokeman, the charges cover incidents lasting from February to November 2009. Halton Region Constable Melanie Fedun, 32, will have her first court appearance April 23, and is suspended with pay.

Canadian Customs strip search woman back from grandmother's funeral - racial profiling suspected

A Ottawa, ON woman of Carribean decent alleges that she was singled out for a strip search by the Canada Border Services Agency (Canadian Customs) because she was a Jamaican born woman. Charmaine Archer, a 42 year old nurses aide at a nursing home, was pulled over with her cousin and 4 year old son by Canadian customs agents as they were headed home from their grandmother's home in Jamaica. The cousin and son were inspected without further incident, but Archer was forced to undergo a strip search.

Agents told Archer, who is a Canadian citizen, she was flagged because she paid for part of her ticket with a credit card, because she booked last minute and because she only stayed for four days.

Agents took what she described as gauze swabs and ran them over her wallet, the lining of her suitcase and even her toothbrush. This took over an hour, Archer said. Her toothbrush, agents said, tested positive for heroin and THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

Archer said to the agents that “You’re a liar. I don’t do drugs, I don’t know anybody that does drugs, and I wasn’t around drugs when I was in Jamaica … I come from an upstanding family and nobody touched that toothbrush but me.”

Canadian officers told Archer that she would have to undergo a strip search. “I said to her, ‘No way that’s going to happen! My husband don’t know what’s inside my rectum and neither will you.” After the customs agents handcuffed Archer and threatened to take her son away from her, she submitted. Archer describes what happened next.

 I got undressed. There were three women in the room — quite humiliating, quite degrading. I’m a big person, very conscious of my body … you can imagine how I felt. They made me stand up and hold my arm up and they made me lift up my breast. Then she told me to turn around and bend all the way over with my feet wide apart. And then she told me to use my hand and open my rectum.

 They told me to put one foot forward then squat and cough … they told me to lift up my belly and they told me open my feet apart and to pry my legs apart and they looked underneath my crotch. When it was over they asked if I wanted to take a minute to sit down.

“This is by no means isolated,” said Ewart Walters, editor of the Spectrum, a monthly newspaper aimed at Ottawa’s black community. “There have been enough incidents over the years of people being picked on.”

He pointed to Leon Stewart, who was held for three hours at the airport in March, 2000. Like Archer, he was strip searched, only Stewart was asked to produce a bowel movement to satisfy customs agents he wasn’t concealing drugs.

“There is an overwhelming number of black people coming from Jamaica who get stopped and asked questions.” Walters said.

Archer's travel agent, Kermit Dougan of Voyages G Travel in Gatineau, PQ, across the river from Ottawa, said that Jamaica is on a list of destinations with a reputation for drug use. Even so, many of his clients, who are black and “not happy about how they’ve been treated,”  have used Toronto's Pearson International Airport, Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau AIrport, and even Syracuse NY's Hancock International Airport to avoid the racial profiling at Ottawa's airport.

Archer says that she is retaining a lawyer since “I want to know what my rights were. I hope no one will ever have to feel the form of degradation that I felt. And that lack of power.”

Scorned husband gets 25 to life for slashing wife, strangling her lover's wife

A suburban Toronto man who killed the wife who cheated on him by slashing her throat and kidnapping and killing another woman was sentenced to 25 years to life Friday in a Toronto courtroom.

Christopher Little slashed the throat of his estranged wife, Julie Crocker, on February 12, 2007 in their marital bed at their home in Markham, a suburb immediately north of Toronto. To cover up this crime, just before the murder of the wife, he stalked, kidnapped, then strangled the wife of his wife's "lover", 33 year old Paula Memendez. The reason Little killed Menendez was to make it appear as it Menendez avenged herself by killing Crocker, then hanging herself. In addition, sportscaster Rick Ralph would lose his mistress and wife.

The Crown portrayed Little as angry, humiliated and utterly alone after his wife of nine years left him to begin a romantic relationship with Ralph, a radio sportscaster. However, Little, a father of two, appeared calm and spoke in a monotone through most of his four days on the witness stand in Newmarket court this month.

"I'm not an angry person," Little told the jury of six men and six women, when pressed for his reaction to his wife Crocker's repeated affairs with other men. The only flash of visible emotion during Little's testimony came when he appeared to shed tears as he described discovering the murder scenes at his home on a quiet, prosperous Markham street.

[The]court heard that Little planted a GPS tracking device in her Volvo, which he used to surprise her and Ralph when he found them together in a downtown Toronto hotel room next door to Crocker and Ralph's offices at Rogers Communications in September 2006. "Julie, I know you're in there. Rick, I know you're in there," Little said as he peered in a peephole, according to Ralph's testimony. "Let's settle this like adults."

Ralph told court that Little also threatened to call Menendez that night, not realizing that her marriage was also virtually over. Anger, not humiliation, was Crocker reaction, Ralph said. "She was mad," Ralph told court. "She said Chris had probably installed it using her money and she was going to force him to remove it."
Court heard that Little tested Crocker's clothing for semen in 2005 and again in August 2006, when he found a positive match for another man's semen on her golf shirt. That man's identity was never determined, since Ralph testified that he hadn't become intimate with Crocker at this point.

The jury did not see a videotape of Little drugging and assaulting Crocker sexually while she was unconscious.

Outside the courthouse, Judy Crocker, Julie's mother, said that her daughter was a devoted mom. "As a mother, Julie was protective and devoted to her children. They adored her and she loved them fiercely...During the trial, the individual permitted to say the most about Julie was the man who committed this horrific act of violence."

Judy Crocker said her daughter was only trying to let Little down easy, since he couldn't accept they were no longer a couple. "In fact, it was her kindness and concern for her husband, her efforts to make things easier for him, which led to the prolongation of a marriage that had been essentially over for a very long time."

Claudia Johnston, Menendez' sister said this about her sister.
 
"Sadly, the punishment will never be enough for any of us because it will not offset the sentence that we all have to serve. That is living our lifetimes without Paula. Despite Chris's and Mr. Rosen's deplorable efforts in spinning stories and attempts at obscuring the truth with lies, the jury was able to see past it, use their common sense and help bring some closure to our families."

Defence lawyer John Rosen argued Menendez might have been driven to end her life and the life of Crocker out of despair over her crumbling marriage to Ralph. Menendez's family said this was totally untrue.

"Paula had a great deal to look forward to. Her life had taken an unexpected turn, and while sad, she had the vision and the strength to work past this as she eagerly made plans for her future. Alternatively, Chris Little did not possess the same courage to deal with the challenges of his life and instead carried out this very cowardly act against two innocent and defenceless women."

Justice Fuerst said in passing sentence that "You slashed the throat of the woman you professed to love so severely that her head almost came off...It's difficult to imagine a greater callousness than robbing children of their mother's love."
 
Fuerst said about Menendez' murder that "Paula Menendez was truly an innocent player ... in a production cast and staged by you and you alone...She was facing her future with grace and courage. You saw to it that the pain you inflicted increased a thousand-fold when you sought out and publicly labelled her a homicidal, suicidal maniac day after day in this court. Let there be no mistake. Paula Menendez was your victim."

"Caretaker" sentenced to life for torture death of mentally disabled woman

By TRACY MCLAUGHLIN, SPECIAL TO SUN MEDIA
Last Updated: 3rd October 2009, 3:34am

BARRIE, Ont. -- In calm voice, a brave mother whose daughter was brutally murdered with a blowtorch stood at the front of the courtroom yesterday and said she is afraid that she will be eaten alive by her pain.

"My daughter would have forgiven with her great big heart, but I am not Katlin and forgiveness is not here with me today," said Deborah Laramay. Then turning to face the man in the prisoner's box, she told him how she lives each day with the haunting memories.

"Not only is my daughter gone, but she was taken in such a cruel, horrible way by those she thought were her friends."

She was speaking to Paul Bradey, 45, who sat without emotion as he looked back at her. Yesterday he was sentenced to life in prison with no parole for 25 years for torturing Katlin Cousineau to death with a blowtorch in the basement of his home on Nov. 13, 2007.

Throughout the trial the jury, who showed up for the sentencing yesterday, never heard any explanation as to why the 23-year-old mentally handicapped woman was routinely beaten and abused when she lived at Bradey's Midland, Ont., home with three other adults.

One witness who admitted to participating in handcuffing and beating Katlin testified it was a "possessed" house and told how he poured gasoline over her dead and tortured body in the form of a pentacle before he set her and the entire house on fire to destroy the evidence.

Self-described "rape hound" declared dangerous offender by Canadian court

Chris Thompson, The Windsor Star
Published: Saturday, September 26, 2009

A self-described "rape hound" must be put away indefinitely to protect the public, a dangerous offender hearing heard in final arguments Friday.

"One cannot command the public safety being protected without some sort of supervision of Mr. (Jeffrey) Bastien for the rest of his life," said assistant Crown attorney Gary Nikota.

Bastien, 33, a repeat sexual offender, has been the subject of a dangerous offender hearing that has been sitting periodically since February 2008. The conviction that led to the dangerous offender application occurred in May 2006, when Bastien was found guilty of breaking into a teenage girl's home, sexually assaulting her, striking her and threatening her.

In the midst of the attack the Grade 11 student had the presence of mind to dial 911, while Bastien's attention was elsewhere. Police responded to the call and arrested Bastien within minutes.

Nikota told Superior Court Justice Terry Patterson that Bastien has a history of sexual deviance, impulsivity, substance abuse and a predilection for violence.

"He has an utter lack of empathy, an utter lack of understanding of the enormity of his conduct. He has no understanding that he could permanently scar these women's lives."

Nikota recapped the series of sexual crimes that recur in his criminal record, many of them committed shortly after being released from prison. "This is an individual who shows violent antisocial disposition. It is part and parcel of his soul, it would seem."

Bastien's lawyer Brian Dube said his client should not be declared a dangerous offender and should instead be sentenced to six years for the sexual assault.

"The number one thing, I think, is whether Mr. Bastien's underlying disorders are treatable or not treatable," said Dube.

He recalled a brief time when Bastien was being held at the Ontario Regional Treatment Centre in Kingston when his behaviour was kept under control.Dube recounted how Bastien was struck by a car at the age of five and suffered serious head trauma.

He referred to a number of other cases where people were declared dangerous offenders who were extremely clever, cunning, manipulative and evil. Dube said Bastien doesn't fall into that category because of his diminished mental capacity. "It's really a punishment of last resort."

(Update 11-21-09) Bastien, the self-described "rape hound," was put away indefinately by Canadian Superior Court Justice Terry Patterson on Wednesday, November 18. In Canada, dangerous offenders are detained indefinately, with review at the 7 year point and every two years thereafter. According to Justice Patterson, “There is a high likelihood that Mr. Bastien will not contain his sexual urges and will reoffend- There is a substantial permanent risk to the community.”

During 37 days of testimony over 21 months, Patterson heard from psychiatrist after psychiatrist who said Bastien suffers from mental illness, sexual deviancy and drug dependency. He attacks even when chemically castrated and his crimes show a troubling pattern of increasingly violent behaviour toward women. Patterson concluded Bastien, who suffered a head injury as a child and has a low IQ, needs 24-hour supervision and can’t be managed in the community.


Bastien has racked up 43 criminal convictions. In the past 15 years, he has had only one day of freedom, being on probation, in jail or in a psychiatric hospital for his entire adult life. Every time he is released from custody, he commits a new crime, often within hours.

A mother was attacked in a downtown Windsor, ON parking lot on the first day of her new job March 29, 1999. She had finished working when Bastien knocked her to the ground and groped her through her underwear. She escaped only because she punched Bastien in the head. She did it because “You think you’re going to get raped. You’re going to die. All I could think was who’s going to take care of my children.”

On Oct. 10, 2000, in Toronto, on the very day he was released from custody for the parking garage attack, Bastien grabbed a woman on the street, put her in a headlock and tossed her into a concrete flowerpot. Minutes before the unprovoked attack, Bastien had been in a Business Depot store, groping female customers on the buttocks.

Three weeks to the day of his release from Millbrook prison where he was in custody for the Toronto attack, Bastien was back in Windsor. He attacked three women in and around the same casino parking garage where he attacked his first victim two years earlier. He grabbed one woman’s breasts, simulated intercourse with a second woman and knocked a third to the ground, shoving his hands down her pants. He made himself out to be the victim, because the third woman bit his fingers when he forced them into her mouth.

Bastien was denied parole twice after bragging about his rape fantasies of pulling female guards through his prison cell. After he was released, he tried to grope a woman caseworker assigned to help him. May 5, 2006 marked the last day of freddom for Bastien, as he showed up, naked from the waist down in a teen girl's home. He followed her to her bedroom and beat her. She called 911, which recorded the attack, including the girl's screams.

“He has chosen to carry out increasingly violent offences against women. There is no other way to protect the public but a dangerous offender designation,” said Assistant Crown Attorney Gary Nikota.

The first parking lot victim, who still fears going alone to lots, said that “It breaks my heart that it happened over and over again. If they don’t keep him locked up, he’ll do this again and again, woman after woman.”

Female Missassauga teacher gets year probation for "affair" with student

Leslie Merlino, a 29 year old former Missassauga, ON teacher who had a sexual affair with a student, was sentenced to a year of probation after continuing contact with that same female student even after a court order prohibited it. Besides the probation, Merlino will be listed as a sex offender for 20 years, and was ordered to submit a DNA sample to Canada's DNA database. The charges Merlino officially plead guilty to were sexual exploitation, breach of probation and failure to comply with a court order.

By all accounts, Merlino was one of the best-liked teachers at the Streetsville school, where she taught Spanish and French to Grade 10 and 11 students, including her young lover.

The friendship between teacher and student blossomed into an infatuation on a European high school trip in March 2006.Later, she stroked the girl's hair and began sending emails. That would lead to an assault charge and a court order to stay away from the student.

From January to September 2007, they exchanged sexually explicit emails and talked frequently on the phone and in person.

They held hands during strolls and met secretly in coffee shops. They kissed and fondled each other in their more private moments. By late summer of 2007, the suspended teacher and former student had become lovers.

The trip to Quebec City Merlino took with her young charge the fall of 2007 did her clean criminal record in, as on October 12, 2007, police officers saw Merlino and her former student get into a car together in Toronto.

Merlino spent 2 1/2 months in jail before being released on conditions which included a curfew. Justice Bruce Durno took that into account in not sentencing Merlino to more jail time, stating that he would have done so if the curfew was not in place. "A career has been lost ... these offences are serious, a flagrant breach of court orders. Regardless of the (victim's) wishes, it was Merlino who was in a position of trust and authority."

The sentence was a joint submission (Canadian version of a plea deal) with Peel Crown prosecutor Kelly Slate and Merlino's defense attorney Gerald Logan. "This is a tragic tale of woman who succumbed to temptation and destroyed her career," Logan said.

Neither the student nor her parents were in court. The student, who cannot be identified, did not file a victim impact statement, and asked to be "left alone" in an email to the Star.

The student's parents, who live in Mississauga, declined to comment.

The 20-year-old's relationship status on Facebook is listed as "engaged."

In a Facebook note "25 things about me," she has written: "Sometimes, I freak out, that I made a mistake. And I shouldn't be with the person I'm with. Other times, I don't know how we've managed to spend so much time apart."

Merlino, who stopped teaching in 2007, had her teaching license permanently revoked Ontario College of Teachers this spring for professional misconduct. She's currently living with her mother in London, ON.

The Canadian age of consent is 16, unless the adult is in a position of trust like a teacher or other professional, in which case the AOC rises to 18. The age of consent, not called the age of protection, was raised from 14 effective May 1, 2008.

Man convicted of HIV positive rape - sentencing date scheduled for September 25

(Original Post 2-24-09)
A Nigerian immigrant to Canada was convicted of aggravated sexual assault for raping his ex-"girlfriend," causing her to be infected with HIV. William-Imona Russel, 35, was also convicted of beating and endangering the 58 year old victim's life. Ontario Superior Court Justice John McMahon stated that "there's no absolute proof" that Imona-Russel infected the victim.

The judge found him guilty of assault causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon, threatening death, attempted aggravated sexual assault to endanger life and two counts of sexual assault.
"I do not find Mr. Imona-Russel to be a forthright witness," McMahon said, noting his testimony was not only contradicted by other witnesses but was internally inconsistent.

The judge found that long after Imona-Russel and his former girlfriend ceased to have consensual sex, he visited her apartment on March 3, 2005, pushed, slapped and kicked her, stood on her chest, threw her on her bed, and threatened to kill her with a power drill before having forced intercourse.

On March 13, he returned, pushing open the bathroom door she was cowering behind, grabbed her throat and raped her again. A few days later, the woman complained to police, who had a pair of her underwear tested for Imona-Russel's semen. The test was positive.
Police also urged the woman to get tested for HIV. She was infected.

Imona-Russel stated that he came to Canada claiming refugee status April 2003, then met the victim in an apartment building near the airport. They started having sex until an immigration doctor told him he was HIV positive, and they never had sex again. However, the judge stated that he tested positive for HIV a month before he stopped having sex with his victim.

The victim suffers from PTSD and substance abuse. Imona-Russel is facing charges that in 2006, he stabbed another woman to death.

(Update 9-13-09) Imona-Russel's sentence, according to Crown prosecutor Julia Forward, should be 8 to 10 years for his "violent and callous" crime against his victim. "She's infected because of his selfish indifference and that is something she'll have to deal with for the rest of her life," Foward opined in her argument before Justice John McMahon in Imona-Russel's sentencing hearing.

Lawyer Ferhan Javed, appointed by Justice McMahon to represent Imona-Russell after he fired other attorneys, argued for a 4 to 6 year sentence. Even though the sentencing hearing was Friday, September 11, his actual sentence will be meted out two weeks later, on September 25.

Surburban Toronto woman shot and killed, allegedly by estranged husband

Woman found dying of gunshot wound 45 minutes after police left her house

Sep 13, 2009 04:30 AM
Raveena Aulakh
[Toronto Star]Staff reporter
ORANGEVILLE–Cyril Donaldson was going to bed when a bloodied woman staggered through his front door, gasping for life and pleading for help.

"I've been shot by my husband – help me," Donaldson's neighbour begged as she collapsed in his arms around 1 a.m. yesterday. He cradled her as his 17-year-old granddaughter called 911.

Heidi Ferguson, 39, mother of two children, was airlifted to Sunnybrook hospital where she died of her injuries.

"I didn't think she would survive," said Donaldson. "She had lost too much blood," he said, pointing to the trail leading into his house.


At midnight, Orangeville police had been called to Ferguson's home on Westdale Ave. on a report of unknown trouble. When the officers got there, Ferguson told them the source of the trouble, her estranged husband, had left, according to an OPP spokesperson. About 45 minutes later, they were called back by Donaldson's granddaughter as Ferguson lay dying from her chest wounds.

Two hours later, her husband, Hugh Ferguson, 42, who had barricaded himself in his house in Mono Township, 13 kilometres north of Orangeville, shot himself as police surrounded the house. Determining what happened in those two crucial hours is now the task of the province's Special Investigations Unit.

Yesterday, Ontario Provincial Police Const. Peter Leon defended the actions of the Orangeville police, saying officers didn't misjudge the severity of the situation as there was no history of violence involving the couple.

"They (officers) were in the midst of an investigation after the first call," he said. "The gentleman had left and there was no indication the outcome was going to be what it was." Leon would not say if police had been called to Ferguson's home in the previous months, but said there was "no such behaviour in the past," referring to violence.

The husband is said by neighbours to have been an avid hunter who owned many firearms. Some speculated that he wanted to get back together with his wife, but that she wanted to move on. Neighbours on Westdale Ave., an affluent, tree-lined street, said Heidi Ferguson moved into the single-storey home about 14 months ago after separating from her husband.

Before moving in, she completely renovated the house. Their children, a 15-year-old boy and a 19-year-old daughter, who neighbours said just started studying at Ryerson University, lived with both parents. The Fergusons operated a business that bought, renovated and sold homes, and he used to visit her as often as twice a week but didn't speak to neighbours.

A police officer said the estranged husband picked up their 15-year-old son some time Friday night and dropped him at a friend's place in the town. The daughter was at Ryerson, said the police source.

A black SUV with the name of Ferguson's company, www.suitedreamdesignteam, stood in the driveway cordoned off by yellow police tape. A cellphone, covered by a cardboard box, lay in the grass between the two driveways. The porch lights were still on in Ferguson's home and the blinds were closed.

Ferguson worked from home. If there was trouble between the Fergusons, Donaldson said he didn't hear of it. He last spoke to Ferguson on Thursday evening when she was leaving and he was coming home.

"She said hello, asked how my wife was ... that's it," said Donaldson, 73, whose wife uses a wheelchair. Ferguson was very friendly and often chatted with him, his daughter and two granddaughters but "if there was any problem, she would never talk about it," he said.

Pam Hillock, who lives across the street, didn't hear the gunfire, but was startled by the arrival on the street of at least three police cruisers shortly after 1 a.m. yesterday.

"It came pretty out of the blue ... you know, there were no loud fights, nothing.

"My heart goes out to the two kids."

At the estranged husband's sprawling million-dollar home in Mono Township, a lone black pick-up truck stood in the driveway as an OPP cruiser guarded the scene.

The SIU team, which had been called at 6 a.m., left the scene at 3 p.m.

A "For Sale by Owner" sign hung outside the brown brick house, which has a three-car attached garage.

Neighbours said they didn't hear any gunfire, but woke up to a large police presence.

"We didn't know what (had) happened till we heard it on the radio," one neighbour said.

"It's so tragic."

London, ON man convicted of DV and child porn charges gets long term offender designation

London Free Press [London, ON, Canada]
By JANE SIMS

A London man's history of sexual deviancy led to a long-term offender status after he was convicted of assaulting and harassing his common-law spouse.

The 42 year-old man was convicted in November and sentenced last month after a lengthy hearing that focused on a psychiatric assessment, classifying the man as a "substantial risk to the community." As a long-term offender, the man will be subject to a 10-year supervision order after he completes his prison sentence.

Superior Court Justice William Jenkins sentenced the man to 30 months. The man was given 18 months' credit for his one year in pre-trial custody, leaving him 12 more months to serve before he's released.

The man was charged in October 2007. He pleaded guilty to a minor physical assault on his common-law spouse, whose name is protected by court order.

He was convicted of harassing her by threatening to harm any man she was with and telling her she had to go to him each week for sex.

He was also convicted of possession of child pornography for a photo on his computer showing a seven-year-old girl. The common-law wife had to leave a job and move away because of the crimes. She fears for her safety.

In his decision, Jenkins noted the man had a record dating back to 1989 that included three sexual assaults, six convictions for invitation to sexual touching of a child under 14, two convictions of sexual interference and one for weapons possession.

Psychiatrist Philip Klassen from the Centre of Addiction and Mental Health examined the man and determined he didn't suffer from a major mental illness but did suffer from "a personality disorder, paraphilias, a probable attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and borderline intellectual functioning."

Klassen said the biggest concern was the man's "bisexual pedophilia" and said he was a high risk to re-offend.

Assistant Crown attorney Peter Rollings told Jenkins the man was warned in 2006 he could face a dangerous offender application if he re-offended. The man had not taken prescribed sex drive reduction medication and failed to comply with court orders.

Jenkins recommended the man serve his sentence at the Ontario Correctional Institute where he can receive sex offender counselling. Once he's released, he cannot associate with his victim or be within 500 metres of her home or work.

He must take his sex drive reduction medications. "Failure to comply with such a mandatory treatment will result in denial of release into the community," Jenkins wrote in his decision.
The man must also abstain from non-prescribed drugs, take anger management and sexual deviancy treatment, and stay away from anyone under the age of 16 unless in the immediate presence of a responsible adult.

He cannot go to parks, playgrounds, public swimming areas, day-care centres, schools or community centres or anywhere children are. He cannot get a job that involves children or use a computer to communicate with a person under 16. The man was ordered banned from firearms for 10 years, placed on the sex offender registry for 10 years and ordered to give a DNA sample.

Jane Sims is The Free Press justice reporter. jane.sims@sunmedia.ca

Black Canadian prosecutor accuses Toronto police of sexually motivated strip search

Betsy Powell
COURTS BUREAU[Toronto Star]

A Crown attorney is asking a Superior Court judge to lay sexual assault charges against two Toronto police officers who "forced him to submit to an unlawful strip search," according to court documents.

The prosecutor, identified on the court docket yesterday as R.S., is appealing a decision by a justice of the peace last year not to charge the officers in connection with the Oct. 6, 2007, incident.

The allegation raises "implications for police as it relates to their long impugned practice of conducting strip searches on short-term detainees without the requisite lawful grounds," according to court documents filed by Donald McLeod, the lawyer representing R.S.

The justice of the peace did, however, approve assault charges against the two arresting officers after R.S. took the unusual step of laying charges privately. Those charges were withdrawn in March.

The 37-year-old Crown attorney, who is black, was arrested for causing a disturbance in the Entertainment District and later filed a human rights tribunal complaint alleging racism was behind his arrest. He was identified when the story became public earlier this year.

Now McLeod and Patrice Band, the lawyer representing the Crown, are requesting a publication ban on the full identify of R.S. as well as the two officers.

Justice Ian Nordheimer yesterday adjourned the matter to July 7.
The court documents submitted on behalf of R.S. say there was nothing "that could possibly justify a complete level 3 strip search."

"The applicant believed he was forced to submit to the degrading and humiliating strip search for an improper purpose – the impugned officers wanted to teach him a lesson."

During the strip search, R.S. says he was forced to "touch and manipulate his genitalia with his hands." He submits "that when assessed in the context of the relevant and controlling judicial authorities, the conduct of the impugned officers satisfies the legal elements of sexual assault."
A factum filed on behalf of the respondent says "there is no evidence that the search was conducted in circumstances of a sexual nature."

Corporate headhunter convicted of sexually hunting women

(Original Post 3-3-08)

A corporate headhunter will be spending many years in prison for hunting women to rape. Joseph T. Joseph, 35, did so by passing himself off as a Viacom official looking for a personal assistant and offering women chances to meet stars like Jay Z and Beyonce. He has done so 30 times over the past decade, or once every 4 months. Twice these sexual cons escalated to rape.

[February 29] a judge convicted Joseph T. Joseph, 35, of forcibly confining and sexually assaulting two women in separate incidents – one threatened with a handgun – who believed they were meeting him for a job interview.

"I only muse that his behaviour was heading to something more serious," said Superior Court Justice Faye McWatt.

"This guy is a sexual predator. He's a liar and a con man."

The attack has totally altered the victims' lives. They've lost confidence in their own ability to judge character, Smith said.

Prosecutor Jerry Brienza declined comment.

The judge ruled that in two incidents in June and July of 2005, the young women agreed to meet Joseph at a coffee shop for a job interview.

He then pressured them to get into his SUV, where he locked the doors and forced them to perform oral sex before letting them go, she said.

With the second woman, he changed the meeting venue from the Rogers Centre area to east Toronto at the last minute because he was short of time, having agreed to join his wife and son in church, court heard.

A 17 year old girl who Joseph tried to lure into his car ran away when he offered to take her to get her hair and nails done. She said "No," and he grabbed her shoulders. She told the principal of her school, Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute, who called police. He was convicted of assault in that incident. Sentencing is set for May 22.

(Update 4-16-09) Joseph was sentenced to 5 years in prison for assaulting two women and a teenage girl by Ontario Superior Court Justice Faye McWatt today. Viacom actually had an inch-thick file about the Toronto impersonator, who ran his own headhunting firm, J Squared Staffing Solutions Inc.

While convicted of 3 rapes, it is alleged that Joseph coerced 30 women and girls into sex over the past decade. The judge cited Joseph's lack of remorse along with denunciation for the 5 year sentence.

AIDS infected man convicted of 1st degree murder in sexual assaults

In an unprecedented decision in Canada, an Hamilton, ON man was convicted of 1st degree murder April 4 for deliberately infecting women with HIV, the virus which eventually causes AIDS. Johnson Aziga, 52, was put on trial in October for 2 counts of 1st degree murder, 10 counts of aggravated sexual assault, and a single count of attempted aggravated assault.

The former Ontario government worker, father of three kids, and athlete met his victims in nightclubs, bars, and also through work. Besides the two deaths, five other victims currently have HIV, and another four were exposed to HIV, but tested negative.

In his instruction to jurors, Justice Thomas Lofchik said they need not find that Aziga planned and deliberately killed the two Toronto women for him to be found guilty of first-degree murder.
The deaths of S.B., 51, and H.C., 49, would automatically be first-degree murders if the jury found they were committed as the result of an aggravated sexual assault, Lofchik said.

The defence argued Aziga suffered from an organic brain disorder and a range of personal problems and did not have the state of mind to deliberately endanger the lives of his sexual partners.

Assistant Crown attorney Karen Shea told the judge she expects to have victim impact statements from many of the surviving complainants and their families.

SB's grown daughter did not wait to give her impact statement, talking to reporters after the verdict was announced. She talked about how her son lost a grandmother due to Aziga's actions.

“I thought that any person who would have common sense and who would have that evidence in front of them would find the same way that I felt — that he was guilty. How could you not connect that (sex) act with the sequence of events that led to her death...I don’t think that he should have any liberties... because he did not give any liberties to his victims by disclosing his HIV status. He denied them treatment and eventually for two of them, my mom included, they died.”

Aziga will be sentenced May 7. 1st degree murder carries a mandatory 25 to life sentence in Canada, where crimes with a maximum sentence over 2 years are always federal offenses. Misdemeanors, called "summary offences," can be provincial or federal offences in Canadian criminal law.

Rosie Dimanno, Toronto Star columnist, has a piece, "HIV-positive man killed with hatred." An excerpt is below.

Dishonest and duplicitous, thinking only of his immediate sexual gratification, the 52-year-old knowingly and intentionally exposed his unsuspecting lovers to the HIV virus right up until the morning of his arrest on Aug. 30, 2003. He cut a wide swath with his penis.

Joffe loses license for sexual abuse of patients after weight loss surgery

Dr. Jacobo Joffe, a 59 year old general surgeon, had his medical licence revoked by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons after he was found guilty of the sexual abuse of four female patients he pursued "romantic" relationships with.


Joffe initially hugged and kissed the two women – identified only as Patient A and Patient B – and told them they were attractive, the panel was told. That summer he engaged in "sexual touching and kissing" with Patient A in his office. He told both women at a Christmas party they were "hot," kissed them on the lips and hugged them.

In January 2004 Joffe met both at a hotel, where he engaged them in sexual touching and kissing. He also later "engaged Patient A in oral sex as well as intercourse at her residence," according to disciplinary hearing documents.

Between January 2004 and 2006, according to the documents, Joffe continued to meet the two women, who were still his patients, at least every two weeks, engaging in sexual acts with them separately and together, in their home and his office.

He also used "illicit drugs" with them which he asked Patient A to buy, according to the documents.

Ottawa, ON man sentenced to 5 years for beating of girlfriend

Man sentenced to five years for attack on ex-girlfriend
Tim Shufelt, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Wednesday, August 06, 2008

OTTAWA - Bernard Momprevil was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday morning for a vicious attack on his ex-girlfriend that left her with a blood clot on her brain, broken bones, and psychological trauma.

In recounting the facts, Justice David Wake called the assault a "brutal beating which caused her to fear for her life."

"There are no signs of remorse from the accused that I can discern," Judge Wake said, adding that the prospects for rehabilitation are slim.

Mr. Momprevil was convicted of 15 charges, including assault causing bodily harm, for an incident on Aug. 10, 2007. After weeks of harassment, Mr. Momprevil attacked the woman in her apartment, confining her to a bathroom and her bedroom while he punched her, kicked her in the stomach, and bit her on the face.

"I have difficulty lifting my head in public and cover the right side of my face with make-up and my hair in hopes of covering where I was bitten," the victim said in testimony before Judge Wake passed sentence.

The victim said she was content with the sentence, which amounts to three more years after a two-for-one credit Mr. Momprevil received for spending one year in pretrial custody.

"Now I feel like I can start living," she said. "It's not about him anymore, it's about me."

Mr. Momprevil also faces sentencing Thursday on unrelated charges of possession of crack cocaine and marijuana for the purposes of trafficking, and possession of proceeds of crime.

Ottawa, ON woman gets 8 years for killing husband

Husband killer gets 8 years
Compassion for 'well-liked' woman outweighed by violence of crime, judge says during sentencing
By BETH JOHNSTON, SUN MEDIA
The Ottawa Sun

Friends gasped as the judge sent Teresa Pohchoo Craig to jail for eight years for stabbing her sleeping husband to death with a butcher knife. "We love you Teresa," a crying woman said as the 51-year-old was led out of an Ottawa courtroom yesterday morning.

Friends had hoped Craig, who a jury found guilty of manslaughter in the March 2006 killing of her husband Jack Craig, would be sentenced to about two years.

Defence lawyer Richard Morris had argued that Craig was driven to kill by years of emotional abuse at the hands of a domineering and controlling man who physically abused the couple's son.

Judge Robert Maranger said he had compassion for Teresa Craig, for what she endured living with a "mean, disrespectful" man like Jack Craig, but felt an eight-year penitentiary term would help to deter others from similar crimes.

"This was a cruel and monstrous act committed by a fundamentally decent human being," Maranger said.

Paramedics found Jack Craig in the Kemptville mobile home where he lived with his wife and son, critically injured with stab wounds to his chest, after a 911 call from a neighbour's home. She later made a videotaped confession to police.

The Craigs had been married 14 years after meeting through a penpal service. Teresa lived in Malaysia and came to Canada to marry him. The level of support Craig received through her trial was "unprecedented" in his time as a judge, Maranger said.

"Mrs. Craig is a person who is very well-liked and who seems to be easy to like."
But sentencing must be based on the idea that a just society is measured by the value it places on a human life, he said.

Many mitigating factors -- Craig's clean criminal record, good character, diagnosis of depression and post traumatic stress disorder at the time, and her low risk to reoffend -- were outweighed by the violence of the crime, he said.

"There were two, deep penetrating wounds that had to involve plunging the knife with a serious degree of force into the body of Jack Craig, virtually burying the entire blade into his body," Maranger said.

The fact the victim was asleep and "physically defenseless" when he was attacked and that their then-10-year-old son was sleeping 15 feet away further aggravated the circumstances in the judge's mind.

"It is clearly a case where a conditional sentence is inappropriate as a term of imprisonment should be well in excess of two years," he said, prompting gasps from the court benches, which were filled with Teresa Craig's supporters.

A young girl in the second row put her face in her hands and started to cry.

Manslaughter penalties range from a suspended sentence to life in prison.
"In this case, that there was some abuse, is undeniable. However, I cannot equate what occurred in this relationship with the line of cases where battered woman syndrome was applied as a significant mitigating factor," the judge told the court.

"I am very sympathetic to Mrs. Craig, I have compassion for Mrs. Craig, but it would run completely contrary to the evidence heard at this trial to find that the aggravating factors in this case when compared to the mitigating factors don't make this, by definition, a near murder."
Craig has four months credit for time she has already served in jail. She will have to give a sample of her DNA and is prohibited from owning weapons for the rest of her life.

London, ON area men plead guilty to sexual assault for exposing "partners" to HIV

Men withheld HIV status
Both plead guilty to aggravated sexual assault
By JANE SIMS
The London Free Press

Both men were ordered to tell their intimate partners they were HIV positive.
And both pleaded guilty yesterday to having unprotected sex with unsuspecting girlfriends.
Edward Kelly, 32, and Tendai Mazambani, 34, each pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated sexual assault in separate cases. Both are to be sentenced later.

Kelly, 32, has a previous conviction in the London area for the same offence in 2003.
Acting Middlesex Crown attorney Mary Potter told Superior Court Justice Johanne Morissette that Kelly was diagnosed with the HIV virus in October 1997.

In September 2002, he was issued a public health order to tell all his sexual partners he was infected and to wear a condom.

But on June 3, 2005, he met a 37-year-old woman, whose identity is protected by court order, on Quest, an Internet personal chat line, court was told. They hit it off, met in person the next day and had protected sex two days later.

Kelly did not tell her he was HIV positive, court heard.

On June 11, 2005, they had sex again, this time without protection. And he did not tell her about his medical status, Potter said.

At the end of July, the woman believed Kelly had not been upfront with her and was often unreliable when setting up times to see her. She broke off the relationship. In August 2005, Kelly was arrested and his parole was revoked. Eight months later, he was released from custody and called the woman.

She picked him up a week later. They continued to be friends, Potter said, until the woman was asked by one of Kelly's roommates if she knew about his HIV.

A day later, on May 2, 2006, the woman called police. Kelly was arrested the next day.
The woman has been tested and remains HIV negative.

Kelly's lawyer, Robert Farrington, said the Crown had agreed to delay the sentencing to Sept. 18 to give Kelly time to put his personal affairs in order. He has been on bail since May 2007.
Mazambani's plea was to one charge, but seven more remain outstanding until his sentencing July 31.

"Guilty," he said softly from the prisoner's box to the charge involving a woman he knew socially in 2006.

Geoff Beasley, acting for the Crown, said between May and September 2006 Mazambani had sex with the woman. They had three conversations about HIV and Mazambani denied having the virus, the woman said.

Mazambani never told the woman his HIV status, Beasley said, and she has said she would never had engaged in sexual relations with him had she known. She said she didn't find out until after the relationship ended. She has been tested for the virus since and remains HIV negative.

Mazambani's sentencing was adjourned for a week to give the victim a chance to attend.

Rapist considered dangerous offender in Canada

Michele Henry Crime Reporter Toronto Star

The sister of a man declared a dangerous offender yesterday has a different view of the person who committed a long list of crimes that include raping a 15-year-old girl, crushing a woman's nose and stabbing a cab driver. She says her brother is treatable and "fixable."

Bette Pilgrim said the justice system has failed Jason John Wayne Pilgrim, 33, because such a designation means that he will probably never get the treatment he needs. "I feel the judge took away something," she said, outside a University Ave. courthouse. "I believe my brother is fixable. The judge was unfair."

Pilgrim, a designated psychopath with dark, slicked-back hair that covers a Maple Leaf tattoo on his head, stared at his sister and mother after Justice Denise Bellamy sentenced him to an indeterminate period of imprisonment.

"This is one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make," Bellamy said.
"It's not to punish him. ... But to protect the public ... from his future violence."

Calling him "extraordinarily" dangerous, Bellamy wrote in her 43-page judgment that she does not believe Pilgrim can be rehabilitated. Pilgrim's list of convictions extends back 20 years and includes violent robberies, break and enters, drug possession, sexual assault, and numerous other assaults against inmates, his spouse, a subsequent girlfriend and a taxi driver.

Christopher Avery, Pilgrim's defence lawyer, said yesterday that with this designation the court has deemed his client a write-off. Instead, he should be declared a long-term offender, Avery said, which would have kept Pilgrim in custody and under the control of Corrections Canada for up to 25 years. With a release date in sight, Avery said, his client would have gotten treatment, such as anger management, which he has never received.

Dangerous offenders and others serving life sentences are the lowest priority for treatment programs, Avery said.

One of 14 siblings – some have died and the remaining have criminal records – Pilgrim had a troubled childhood. With a father who allegedly sexually abused four of his seven sisters, he also witnessed his older brother sexually assault another sibling. Pilgrim may himself have been the victim of such abuse.

After the proceedings yesterday, Bette and mother Sadie Pilgrim, 72, paced outside the courtroom until they met with Pilgrim briefly.

"He's my brother and I love him," Bette said.

Toronto metro area man allegedly tries to electrocute wife

Curtis Rush STAFF REPORTER, The Toronto Star

A 60-year-old Oshawa man who works as an electrician is facing numerous charges after allegedly trying to electrocute his wife and then leading police on a high-speed chase in his car.

Police say that the victim was taking a shower Sunday morning when she received several electric shocks while adjusting the taps. When she called her husband into the bathroom, he told her it was a build-up of static electricity.

Later that evening, at about 11 p.m., the victim discovered a section of drywall missing and electrical wires attached to the plumbing in the bathroom, police say.Sgt. Paul McCurbin of Durham Police said the woman found the drywall missing in the master bedroom, which adjoins the bathroom. An extension cord with open wires ran to the plumbing. Police did not lay attempted murder charges because while they determined it was dangerous, the woman would not have died from the incident.

When she confronted her husband early at about 12:15 a.m. Monday, he attacked her and choked her almost to unconsciousness, police say. The man then left the house and drove off. His wife called police.

Officers found the man’s Grand Am heading east on Highway 2 near Regional Road 57 and followed it. The car turned on to Highway 401, followed by police, who turned on their their lights and sirens. Instead of stopping, the driver accelerated with the police in pursuit. They called off the chase when the car reached speeds in excess of 170 km/h, police say.

Not long after, the car was spotted by Port Hope police in the town and the man was arrested.
The man has been charged with mischief endangering life, aggravated assault, two counts of assault causing bodily harm and failing to stop for police.

Suburban Toronto man convicted on manslaughter charge for beating girlfriend to death

(Original Post 3-8-08)

A man who admitted killing his girlfriend by beating her to death was convicted of manslaughter, not 2nd degree murder by an Ontario court, the same sentence his lawyer tried to have him plead guilty to before his trial.

Audrey Cote, 21, was killed when 28 year old Ryan Bucknor punched her in the face and stomped on her chest in Brampton, a northwest suburb of Toronto. Bucknor could have been convicted of 2nd degree (but not 1st degree) murder, which carries a life sentence with no parole from between 10 and 25 years.

Crown prosecutor Dave King rejected Bucknor's bid to plead guilty to manslaughter before the trial began. King was confident he could prove Bucknor knew what he was doing when he repeatedly punched Cote in the face, stomped on her chest and possibly tried to strangle her in her basement apartment on Fletcher's Creek Blvd. in Brampton.

Bucknor never denied killing Cote, who worked at a Brampton strip club.

Police investigators told how Cote was laying down at her apartment when Buckner beat her so viciously that blood flew up and reached the ceiling.

He told a Crown-appointed psychiatrist that he thought he was killing "a demon" when he was beating Cote. After beating her and leaving her dying, Bucknor left the apartment and tore off his clothes as he ran down the street, throwing money to passersby and shouting he was "a messenger from God." He was initially arrested under the Mental Health Act after he was found naked and sitting in the back seat of a stranger's car. He told a police officer he was God.

But King suggested to jurors that Bucknor faked his mental problems to get out of a murder charge. In a police interview after his arrest, Bucknor described how he punched and hit Cote and how the beating gave him a "rush." He also agreed it felt like a "thrill kill," although he admitted he felt it was as if he was "acting in a movie." A close friend testified that Bucknor acted strangely just days before the fatal attack.

Bucknor was hearing voices, the friend said, and thought people could read his thoughts. He had also moved all of his furniture to one side of the living room in his apartment.
Hall urged jurors to rely on the evidence of two forensic psychiatrists, who said Bucknor was suffering from a major mental illness, likely schizophrenia, which could have been triggered by his chronic marijuana use.

"If he's killing a demon, then he can't be seeing reality the way we do," Hall told jurors.
"This man was delusional ... he was not rational.

"At the time of the incident, this man was suffering from a mental illness, a psychotic illness. His thoughts, his emotions, his behaviour was impaired."

Psychiatrists conceded Bucknor wasn't suffering from any mental health problems at trial but jurors heard he was placed on anti-psychotic medicine during his first year while in custody awaiting trial.

Bucknor will be sentenced May 5.

(Update 5-29-08) Bucknor was sentenced to 10 years in prison, between the defense recommendation for 7.5 years and the prosecution's recommendation for between 12 and 15 years. Justice John Sproat said the "intentional application of force" overrode Bucknor's mental illiness, however, he also expressed the opinion that "I hope you are able to rehabilitate yourself and make something of your life."

Bucknor was given credit for 68 months in jail (Canada gives time served in jail before trial double time, so he has to serve 52 months more. Bucknor is barred for life from owning weapons, and must submit a sample to Canada's DNA database.