Peter's Case — Mischief Under $5000 — guilty Plea

Between
Her Majesty the Queen, and
Peter C.

[2006] O.J. No. 1134

Ontario Court of Justice
Guelph, Ontario
Judge W.G. Mahaffy

Guilty Plea and Admitted Facts:  9 March 2006
(27 paras.)

¶ 1     W.G. MAHAFFY J. (orally):  Mr. Peter C., you are charged on the 24th of October, 2004, at Guelph, you committed mischief by wilfully damaging without legal justification or excuse and without colour of right, an automobile of Lara S., the value of which did not exceed five thousand dollars. How do you wish to plead with this charge?

¶ 2    PETER C.:  Guilty, Your Honour.

¶ 3     THE COURT:  All right, go ahead, please.

¶ 4     MR. DeVOS:  Just by way of some background information — Lara S. and Mr. Peter C. were in a common-law relationship for about six years. They separated in approximately 2002. There are no children of that relationship.

¶ 5     It is also noted here that there are some outstanding charges involving Mr. Peter C. in Halton Region at the time of this incident, concerning Mr. Peter C. and Ms Lara S. Ms Lara S. tells police that she is concerned about Mr. Peter C. and her safety with respect to ongoing contact with Mr. Peter C.

¶ 6     On this particular occasion it was Sunday, October 24th. Ms Lara S. who resides in Milton was in Guelph for business reasons, I believe, or in any event was in Guelph and had parked her company vehicle at the Stone Road Mall located 435 Stoneycreek Road West in Guelph. She parked it there at around 1:15 p.m.

¶ 7     Mr. Peter C., who at the time resided in Guelph, was observed by an independent civilian witness scratching Ms Lara S.'s vehicle, a 2001 Oldsmobile Alero, licence marker RTM 385. The civilian observed Mr. Peter C. scratching along the passenger side, the rear doors, the hood. The witness observed Mr. Peter C. walking away from the vehicle and get into a black Honda Civic, licence marker RTM 385, which was registered to Mr. Peter C.

¶ 8     The civilian followed Mr. Peter C.'s vehicle and at the same time called 911. He followed the vehicle to a point where police intercepted the two vehicles which was on Garden Street just south of Stoneycreek Road West. Police did a search of Mr. Peter C.'s vehicle and found a silver metal object about five inches long with a pointed tip which they had seized at the time of the arrest, and Mr. Peter C. was charged with the mischief offence.

¶ 9     It is also noted that he was on bail at the time from Milton and there was also a charge with respect to the bail. Those are the facts that the Crown is relying on with respect to this plea.

¶ 10     With respect to damages, Mr. Penney and I have had discussions about that. It is my information that this vehicle had other damage to it from other issues. The vehicle was repaired and the total repairs done to that vehicle were about thirty-four hundred dollars. The problem we faced was trying to apportion that to the particular mischief that is the subject of this plea.

¶ 11     You'll hear that we have an agreement for a monetary amount of $1000 that Mr. Penney will undertake to forward to the insurance company of this motor vehicle. I am told that they, in fact, covered the cost of repairing the vehicle — both these particular issues and other issues that are the subject of the repair invoice.

¶ 12     THE COURT:  Mr. Penney, do you have any comment on those facts?

¶ 13     MR. PENNEY:  Those facts, Your Honour, have been reviewed with Mr. Peter C. on a number of occasions and those facts are admitted as being correct. I'd ask Your Honour to find him guilty, please, on the charge as read.

¶ 14     THE COURT:  All right. There will be a finding of guilty. The other two counts on the Information I take it the crown wants withdrawn?

¶ 15     MR. DeVOS:  That's correct, Your Honour.

¶ 16     THE COURT:  All right, they will be endorsed as requested. Now, what about a record?

¶ 17     MR. DeVOS:  There are no prior convictions for Mr. Peter C.

¶ 18     THE COURT:  And you want to go ahead with the sentencing hearing today?

¶ 19     MR. PENNEY:  Yes, we've been preparing, Your Honour for the sentencing hearing on this matter for about nine months now, considering that there was never any issue as to his guilt with respect to this count. I'm asking Your Honour to give him credit, frankly, for an early guilty plea because this is something that could have been done in September. I am not criticizing my friend in any way because certain events have unfolded in the past six months that have caused my friend to take a different position than the Crown took at the judicial pre-trial. But I do want Your Honour to know that this is not somebody who is pleading guilty at the last minute — this is something that should have been pled guilty to earlier. He is admitting now what he had admitted to all along.

¶ 20     I have, Your Honour, a great deal of material to put before you on sentencing, and subject to what Your Honour has to say, I'm simply going to provide it to Your Honour. It was provided to my friend in advance. I'm going to ask that it collectively be marked as Exhibit "A."

¶ 21     THE COURT:  All right, on sentencing: Exhibit Number "A," case law brief, produced and marked.

¶ 22     MR. PENNEY:   It is quite detailed, Your Honour, and in depth, and includes at least four psychotherapy reports, a detailed psychiatric report from a Dr. Bloom, and numerous other letters and affidavits from the bail review. I also have two witnesses that I'd like to call, although I suspect after Your Honour has an opportunity to read what is in the materials because they are quite detailed and thorough that Your Honour may not need to hear from them.

¶ 23     So I don't know if Your Honour wants some time to review that. I'm going to be making brief references to some case law as well. I'll hand that to the Clerk now but I don't think Your Honour needs to review that in advance. I'll make brief reference to it in my submission.

¶ 24     I'm in Your Honour's hands — if you want me to proceed? I suspect it might be better if Your Honour reviews that first rather than having me trying to summarize what's in there. Once Your Honour has an opportunity I'll be ...

¶ 25     THE COURT:  Well, you're the one that's done all the work on this, and if you think I should read it before I decide whether the other witnesses, the witnesses are necessary ... and in any event if I don't read it now I'll probably be listening in a vacuum.

¶ 26     MR. PENNEY:  Yes, I would prefer Your Honour to read it. It would certainly shorten my submissions and it would put in better context the evidence of the two witnesses I'm going to call, if Your Honour needs to hear from them at all, because I'll lead them through obviously what's in the materials already and just give Your Honour an update. So if Your Honour is content to do that, I'd please ask Your Honour to do that.

¶ 27     THE COURT:  Okay. Well, I'll take 20 minutes and see if I can get through this in that period of time.

BACK TO PETER'S CASE
READ THE SUBMISSIONS BY CRAIG PENNEY
READ THE SENTENCE BY THE JUDGE