Sudbury lawyer Louis Sola says he?s appealing a decision made by a Timmins judge declaring a man a dangerous offender.
Sola says Allan Saunders is mentally ill.
Saunders was sentenced by Sudbury judge Guy Mahaffy recently to four months in jail on top of eight months he?s already served after Saunders attacked two guards at the Sudbury District Jail with a broom handle last summer.
Saunders was serving a penitentiary term for two aggravated assaults in 1999, including one where he fractured the eye socket of a police officer trying to arrest him, and has served the past 4.5 years in solitary confinement, said Sola.
Saunders also has numerous other convictions for assault, most of them against police officers and jail guards.
The problem is Saunders won?t acknowledge he suffers from mental illness and he?s been unable to access programs or assistance from mental illness professionals in the penitentiary, said Sola.
