The pandemic may have shut down courts across the country in March for quite a while, but that doesn’t mean people weren’t still committing crimes and being arrested for it.
In Greater Sudbury, the court docket has been full of names daily.
Sudbury.com does not have a reporter who covers court all day, every day, but we have been following several high-profile cases this past year.
Here’s a list of what has happened in some of those cases:
Charges dropped against Dr. Ian MacDonald
The child-pornography charges against Health Sciences North nephrologist Ian MacDonald have were withdrawn.Oct. 7.
At the end of September, Justice Heather-Ann Mendes ruled search warrants issued following the seizure and subsequent search of MacDonald’s office computer were facially invalid. She said they exceeded the authority that was intended to be granted.
MacDonald was arrested May 15, 2019, and charged with seven counts of accessing child pornography. He was also charged with two counts of possession of child porn. MacDonald obtained bail on May 17, 2019, two days after he was charged.
MacDonald hired Toronto lawyer Michael Lacy to defend him.
In an email statement, Lacy said the Crown made the decision to withdraw the charges following the preliminary ruling by Mendes, which found that various warrants obtained by the police were facially invalid and which also permitted the defence to cross-examine the investigating officer on another search warrant he obtained.
Sentencing delayed for David Case
Well-known former track coach David Case was to be sentenced in December for sexually assaulting a teenager who later became his wife in a secret marriage more than 30 years ago.
Instead, a sentence will be handed down Jan. 4.
Case was convicted in March this year on one count of sexual assault, one count of assault causing bodily harm and one count of assault concerning a female athlete in the mid-1980s to early 1990s.
Case’s defence lawyer is seeking three years probation for his client.
The Crown attorney’s office is seeking five years in prison.
Case is also scheduled for further sentencing submissions when he was found guilty of aiding and abetting in a sexual assault.
Submissions will take place Jan. 13 for both Case and Celine Loyer, one of his former proteges, who was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman at Case's home in 2011.
Case and Loyer were found guilty March 5 by Justice Patricia Hennessy, who presided over the case.
The victim, who could not be identified under a publication ban, said she was sexually assaulted by Case and Loyer after she attended a dinner gathering at Case’s home. She said she blacked out at one point in the evening, believing she had been drugged, and that the assault took place while she was unconscious.
Woman accused of first-degree murder granted bail
In what is arguably one of the most shocking court cases this year, a well-known Sudbury woman was given bail in December after she was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of her estranged husband.
Melissa Sheridan is the co-accused in the death of Brant Burke, whose body was discovered on a trail of Highway 637 near Killarney on Oct. 25. Also charged with first-degree murder is his estranged brother, Kerry Burke.
She was granted bail under what Superior Court Justice David Nadeau has called an “extremely restrictive” set of conditions. A publication ban prevents any evidence revealed from being reported.
The case is still relatively new. The charges against both Burke and Sheridan were laid Nov. 24 and Nov. 25, respectively.
Burke’s matter will return to court Jan. 7.
Dangerous offender designation still pending for Alexander Stavropoulos
Alex Stavropoulos will return to court Jan. 7 in video remand court.
Stavroploulos pleaded guilty in January this year to two counts of attempted murder and one count of breach of probation.
An Ontario Court judge approved a Crown motion to have Stavropoulos undergo a psychiatric assessment in connection with a possible dangerous offender application. Pending the outcome of the assessment, the Crown may seek permission to proceed with a dangerous offender or long-term offender registry.
A dangerous offender designation is reserved for Canada’s most violent criminals and sexual predators. Crown attorneys must show that there is a high risk the criminal will commit violent or sexual offences in the future. It has an automatic prison sentence for an indefinite period, with no chance of parole for seven years.
A person who is declared a long-term offender is sentenced to an appropriate term of imprisonment and, upon release, is subjected to a long-term supervision order for up to 10 years.
At the time, he was under an order not to be in possession of knives outside of his home.
The attack was random, but it was focused on Stavropoulos' attempt to kill a young white girl, he said. The court heard he was “out to murder a little white girl,” and that he wanted it to be a child.
Sudbury reporter charged with child pornography
CTV reporter Callam Senyk-O’Flanagan (also known as Callam Rodya) was charged with child pornography and drug possession almost two years ago.
His matter has been before the courts numerous times since then, but there has been no progress that could be reported.
Senyk-O’Flanagan has not even entered a plea as of yet.
He was released on bail a day after he was first charged with possession of child pornography, accessing child pornography, making available child pornography and one count of possession of a Schedule 1 substance (cocaine).
He is currently living in Guelph.
Sudburian convicted of hate speech, again
Perennial fringe candidate David Popescu was found guilty of willfully promoting hatred of an identifiable group - homosexuals.
Provincial court Justice Heather-Ann Mendes delivered her verdict in September, and sentencing submissions were to happen Nov. 13.
However, a full court docket that day prevented Crown attorney Leonard Kim from delivering his submissions. He told the court he was still considering asking for a penitentiary term for Popscu, as this is his second conviction for promoting hatred.
Popescu is self represented. He told Sudbury.com after he was found guilty that whatever sentence he receives won’t stop him from spreading his message of hate toward homosexuals.
During his trial, he told the court God’s law is above man’s law, and he answers only to God.
The matter had been scheduled for 2 p.m. on Jan. 15 at the Cedar Street courthouse.
Sentencing submissions for teen who threatened students at CND
Zachary Pilon will appear in court Jan. 4, 2021, for sentencing submissions after he pleaded guilty to threatening to kill more than three dozen people at his high school in 2019.*
Pilon was supposed to be sentenced Dec. 8, however, his matter was adjourned because he wanted an out-of-town judge to oversee his sentencing.
He posted a kill list in March 2019 containing the names of about 40 people at Collège Notre-Dame. He was charged with criminal harassment and uttering threats.
His post on social media sent the school into lockdown on March 20, 2019. An Instagram post he made warned that, on “Friday March 22nd, everyone will finally know my name… Look out CND.”
He was arrested that day and released on bail March 21, 2019 with a set of conditions attached.
*An earlier version of this story incorrectly used Jan. 3 as the court date for Zachary Pilon. This has been corrected to Jan. 4.
