KEITH LACEY
A former Laurentian University professor who helped lead Sudbury?s-acclaimed regreening efforts was placed on probation for three years and ordered to remain away from young boys after pleading guilty to assaulting a young teenager 25 years ago.
After hearing evidence from the victim, who is now in his late 30s, the trial against Keith Winterhalder, 68, on two counts of indecent assault came to an abrupt end Monday as lawyers negotiated a plea bargain.
Winterhalder was charged in March after the complainant told police Winterhalder inappropriately touched him in a sexual manner starting when he was age 13.
Winterhalder was sentenced after it was revealed he touched the boy?s leg and tried to unzip his pants while they were riding together in a vehicle.
He talked to police after his mother died earlier this year, said the complainant.
During three years of probation, Winterhalder agreed to not be in the presence of any young male under age 16.In the fall of 1999, Winterhalder, a well-known biology professor and leader of Sudbury?s regreening efforts over the past 25 years, was sentenced to six-months in jail and placed under two years of house arrest after he pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting two young boys between 1978 and 1983.
The indecent assaults took place in Winterhalder?s Sudbury apartment.
A plea of no contest was registered before the courts in 1999, but in return Winterhalder agreed to allow the Crown to read in an agreed statement of facts that were not contested or contradicted.
He was a tenured professor with more than 30 years of teaching experience at the time he was fired.
The city and its partners were given a prestigious award for those regreening efforts by the United Nations several
years ago.
