Yellowknife (Apr 13/05) - North Slave MLA Henry Zoe was convicted yesterday of resisting arrest in a decision that has cast a shadow over the political future of the one-time cabinet minister.

MLA Henry Zoe

Zoe, dressed in a grey suit, bowed his head slightly when Territorial Court Chief Judge Brian Bruser announced the decision. Otherwise Zoe showed little emotion during the afternoon hearing in Yellowknife.

"Your position as a member of the legislative assembly places you in the public eye," said Bruser. "As a public figure you are expected to be a role model."

Bruser fined Zoe $700 plus a 15 per cent surcharge for the victims of crime.

"An MLA can certainly afford it," Bruser said.

This latest conviction stemmed from an altercation the former minister of municipal and community affairs had with police at his Yellowknife home, Aug. 28, 2004.

When police responded to a domestic disturbance call, a "moderately intoxicated" Zoe struggled with the officers, who arrested him on a charge of threatening his wife. Through his lawyer Margo Nightingale, Zoe denied making the threats.

It took three officers to handcuff Zoe, who later stumbled while walking down a flight of stairs and knocked his face on a vehicle.

The resisting arrest charge carries a maximum of six months in jail.

Zoe brushed past reporters outside of the Yellowknife courthouse following the decision, refusing to comment on whether he would resign his seat in the legislative assembly.

His political future now seems to rest in the hands of his political counterparts, who are required under territorial law to vote on whether Zoe should remain in the assembly.

Zoe had four previous convictions on his record dating back to 1977: theft, assault causing bodily harm, assault and impaired driving.

During the trial in March, Nightingale tried to establish that police didn't follow proper procedure when they arrested Zoe - an argument Bruser dismissed when he announced his sentence Tuesday.

"It was not open to any of these officers to walk away and do nothing," Bruser said.

Zoe made a brief statement to the court before Bruser passed sentence, saying he had the "deepest respect" for police, but he did not apologize for the incident.

Nightingale asked Bruser to impose a conditional sentence - a measure that would have left Zoe without a criminal record for the resisting arrest charge.

Bruser declined, calling Zoe a "repeat offender" and saying the MLA did not express any remorse in his brief address to the court.

"It would be a weak message to the public if the sentence was unreasonably lenient," he said.

Nightingale said she didn't discuss appealing the case with Zoe after the judgement.