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Court briefs
Man to stand trial for charges of sex assault, sodomy

Andrew Livingstone
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, April 14, 2010

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A Dettah man will stand trial by judge and jury on charges of break and enter, sexual assault, and anal intercourse in connection to an incident last December.

Jimmy Beaulieu, 48, was in territorial court last Thursday for a preliminary inquiry into the allegations. Crown prosecutor Marc Lecorre and defence lawyer Tom Boyd heard testimony from the complainant and Judge Brian Bruser found the testimony to be enough for the case to proceed.

Anyone found guilty of non-consensual anal intercourse could receive a maximum prison term of 10 years when the Crown chooses to proceed by indictment. The same maximum sentence of 10 years applies to sexual assault.

No date has been set for the trial.

No jail time for theft, missing court dates

A 48-year-old man was spared jail time by Judge Brian Bruser Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to theft and failing to appear in court on the charges.

Ronald Payne was arrested Oct. 9, 2008 after the vehicle he was driving, a red Ford Aerostar which was reported to being involved in the theft of a laptop from Wal-Mart, was spotted at a local gas bar. The laptop, priced at $799, was found in the vehicle and the man was arrested.

Payne then failed to appear in court three times after the arrest - on Dec. 16. 2008, March 16, 2009 and again on Aug. 11. Noting Payne's lengthy criminal record spanning more than two decades and a half dozen failure to appears on record, Bruser said in order to maintain public confidence in the system, people need to appear for their court dates, adding when people don't, "it's damaging to the administration of justice."

Bruser said he was "teetering on the line" of sending the man to jail because of the previous failures to appear in court, but decided on a fine of $800 for being in possession of stolen goods and failing to appear.

"If you have to come to court, you come to court," Bruser said.

Jailed two months for drinking and driving

A 23-year-old man was handed 60 days in jail after pleading guilty Thursday to impaired driving, stemming from an incident this past January. Mark Normandin was arrested for impaired driving on Jan. 20 after being pulled over by police for speeding. He provided police with a breath sample that showed he was two-and-a-half times over the legal limit.

Crown prosecutor Marc Lecorre said Normandin was lucky he didn't get in an accident and hurt himself, the female passenger in the vehicle or anyone else.

"The entire population of Yellowknife (was) in danger for many hours," Lecorre told Judge Brian Bruser.

Lecorre said police had to chase Normandin for a short time before he pulled over, but defence lawyer Jay Bran said calling it a chase wasn't right.

"The RCMP had to travel 50 to 60 km an hour to catch up," Bran said. "To characterize that it was a chase is simply unfair."

The conviction was Normandin's second, the first occurring in 2006. Bruser said "the public needs to be protected."

"People drink, they drink too much, they get behind the steering wheel and they operate a vehicle," Bruser said. "It's mayhem after that."

Normandin was also given a two-year driving prohibition on top of the 60 days in jail.

Man charged with moving bowhead baleen

A Yellowknife man charged with transporting bowhead whale baleen from Kugaruuk, Nunavut, will be back in court May 4 to plead to the charges.

The man was charged Aug. 22 last year for allegedly having the baleen in his possession, contrary to section 16 of the Marine Mammal Regulations which states "no person shall take or carry marine mammals or marine mammal parts from one province" except under the authority of a marine mammal transportation licence issued by the government.

The accused was not in court on April 6 to speak to the charge, but defence lawyer Stephen Shabala, acting as the man's agent, requested that the matter be delayed a month.

Jaw breaker pleads guilty

A 20-year-old man pleaded guilty in Supreme Court on April 6 to aggravated assault after an incident last year where he shattered a man's jaw, causing him to have it wired shut for six weeks.

On April 1, 2009, Ryan Catholique and his friend were told they couldn't stay at a man's home after a night of drinking. Catholique then pushed the 20-year-old man down the stairs after he was asked to leave, causing the man to hit his face on the bottom metal step.

The man woke up the next day and went to the hospital where he was treated for a broken jaw, which required surgery.

Defence lawyer Hugh Latimer asked for a pre-sentence report to be completed before sentencing, which is scheduled for May 17. Crown prosecutor Janice Walsh agreed.

Woman jail bound after breaking terms of freedom

A woman found intoxicated and breaking a court order will serve the remaining five months of her conditional sentence in jail.

Debbie Ailanak, who was convicted in March of assaulting a drug store employee on Christmas Eve, told Judge Garth Malakoe on April 6, that she wanted to be put in jail.

"I can't follow the conditional sentence ordered," she said, adding she wanted to spend her time in jail in the territory and not down south.

RCMP received a complaint of a highly intoxicated woman causing a disturbance at the Gold Range around 5 p.m. on April 3. Police found and arrested Ailanak in the alley behind the bar. She was having difficulty standing and gave off a strong odour of alcohol.

During her court appearance, Ailanak said she would be on her best behaviour if allowed to have a cigarette after her court appearance.

Defence lawyer Peter Fuglsang asked for her jail time to be less than the five months remaining on her conditional release, but Malakoe denied the request.