BY KEITH LACEY
A man who is the focus of a dangerous offender hearing lashed out in anger at his lawyer and could be heard uttering profanities for more than 10 minutes before the Crown concluded evidence against him Thursday.
Donald Kocurek became upset at his lawyer Norm Williams during final submissions by Sudbury's Crown attorney John Luczak.
When Kocurek demanded a break in proceedings, Justice Louise Gauthier of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice agreed and ordered a 15-minute break.
Seconds after she left the courtroom, Kocurek accused Williams of not defending him properly.
Williams responded and told Kocurek "to shut up" and calm down or he would be unwilling to talk to him.
This made Kocurek even more upset and he muttered several more profanities, before two police officers and one court security officer escorted him from the courtroom into an adjacent meeting room.
Members of the media and court staff could hear Kocurek continue his verbal tirade for several minutes, where a stream of profanities continued, until he finally settled down.
When court resumed, Williams apologized to the court and told Gauthier he made an inappropriate comment to his client, which set Kocurek off, and he was to blame for the adjournment.
At no time was he ever afraid of Kocurek during this dispute and the court should not place anything into what had just happened, said Williams.
Gauthier agreed and Luczak quickly completed his submissions.
Because Luczak took all day Wednesday and until 1 pm Thursday to complete his closing submissions, Williams said he would not be able to complete his submissions Thursday and would need more time to prepare.
His client deserves full defence and he needs more time to prepare his submissions, said Williams.
When court resumed at 2 pm, it was agreed Williams will submit his closing submissions the first week of December.
Kocurek has spent almost 43 months in custody since being arrested in March of 2003 after stealing a truck and leading police on a high-speed chase. After police closed in around him, Kocurek was convicted of using the truck as a weapon and trying to run over officers trying to place him under arrest.
In the truck, police found cocaine. One officer who feared for his life fired five bullets at Kocurek, but none of them hit him.
Kocurek has more than three dozen convictions, including convictions for sexual assault, robbery and numerous convictions for aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and assault.
The Crown wants Kocurek declared a dangerous offender.'
Luczak said Kocurek meets all the criteria to be declared a dangerous offender and he suffers from antisocial personality disorder and meets the test for being declared a psychopath.
Considering Kocurek's long history of violence and three convictions for leading police on high-speed chases, all which resulted in crashes, it's only through good luck no one has been seriously hurt, he said.
