BY KEITH LACEY
Justice Louise Gauthier has declared Keith Belleau, 38, a long-term offender (LTO) but refused the Crown?s request to declare him a dangerous offender.
The veteran judge ruled Tuesday she believes Belleau?s behaviour can be controlled with intense and strict sanctions when he gets out of jail in three years.
After the ruling, Belleau hugged members of his family. Court security allowed him to pose for Christmas pictures before he was to be transported back to the penitentiary to complete his jail sentence.
A dangerous offender designation would have resulted in Belleau being given an indeterminate sentence, perhaps for the rest of his life.
Dangerous offender applications are sought against only repeat, violent offenders who have shown they can?t be part of the community without committing another violent offence.
This was the first Crown application to have a repeat violent offender declared a dangerous offender in Sudbury in almost 25 years.
Instead, Gauthier sentenced Belleau to an additional three-year penitentiary term on top of 30 months he?s already spent in pre-trial custody for a
series of violent attacks in June 2002.
Those attacks included stabbing and slashing a man in the face, back and chest; punching his sister in the face and slicing her arm and upper torso with a broken beer bottle; and smashing another man over the head with a beer bottle and cutting him. He also tried to attack a police officer with a knife during his arrest.
The sentence also includes convictions for Belleau kneeing a former girlfriend in the face and assaulting a jail guard while in custody at the Sudbury District Jail last summer.
Belleau has served 12 of the past 20 years behind bars and now has 17 convictions for violent assaults, including numerous convictions for using a knife or beer bottle to attack and cut victims.
After he?s released from jail, Gauthier imposed a 10-year LTO designation against Belleau and imposed numerous harsh restrictions on his freedom.
Gauthier made it clear to Belleau that if breaks any conditions of his LTO order, he will be back behind bars and likely for a long time.
Those conditions include a recommended two-year residency at a native healing lodge, complete abstinence from using alcohol or drugs, random testing for alcohol and drugs, accepting anti-psychotic medication, regular counselling for substance abuse and anger management and continued support from the Whitefish Lake First Nation community where he grew up.
Gauthier also prohibited Belleau from owning or possessing any firearm or prohibited weapon for life.
Two Crown doctors testified they believed Belleau met the criteria for a dangerous offender application. But two defence doctors testified while Belleau does possess a severe form of anti-social personality disorder, he doesn?t meet the criteria and has made solid progress is changing his attitude while in custody.
A native spiritual healer who has worked extensively with Belleau for more than two years has noticed a dramatic change in Belleau?s attitude and ?his tough guy image has given way to a laid back? and more thoughtful attitude, she noted.
Belleau no longer blames others for his conduct, she said.
Belleau has also completed an anger management course and was the only student in an educational upgrading program at the jail to graduate, noted
Gauthier.
Perhaps most importantly, Belleau has acknowledged he?s an addict and can no longer abuse alcohol or drugs which are at the root of almost all his
violent acts, she said.
Regular random drug and alcohol testing and use of prescription drugs proven effective in making alcoholics stop drinking must be part of any court
order, she said.
