by Chris Meyers Almey
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 21/97) - Pushing a woman around because she refused to have sex with a city chef has cost him his new job and 40 days of freedom.

Territorial court heard last week that when Timothy James Rigler, 29, told his new employer he might be going to jail, he was fired.

But Judge Michel Bourassa zeroed in on the effects on victims of the Nov. 5 incident in Enterprise.

The woman's 10-year-old son, who escaped with his mother into the cold that night, will "remember that for years and years to come," said Bourassa.

It was 3:30 a.m. when Rigler, who had been drinking all evening, demanded sex. When the woman refused and tried to put her clothes on, he stopped her.

In anger, Rigler overturned a mattress in the living room, where the woman's son was sleeping. She ran to the end of her trailer and called police.

Back in the living room, she whispered to her son to pass her boots and then they secretly fled to safety with the woman wearing only a robe, Crown prosecutor Jolaine Antonio said.

Rigler has two children in Alberta and said he intends to return there when he gets out of jail.

Defence lawyer Graham Watt said Rigler was on his way to Yellowknife for work but was hired in Enterprise, where he met the woman. They lived together for three months.

Watt asked for a 21-day sentence for Rigler, who had previously pleaded guilty to the assault, but Bourassa ruled otherwise.

"The days of attacking people have to end," he said, handing down the 40-day sentence.