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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2002-04-24, Page 23BUYING FOR A MINOR IS A MAJOR OFFENCE Sbpki.2,C.0.4 !MOW end yo'ren9b4 ter hr;e16 and araFty. Yon ,:ian ink up In we yowf jail and up In VIM :ter. you're *A tgx,Jrt to buy aikchol irgrgy,boreportrth. N%ponsib'c Dolt:44 lorntots THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2002. PAGE 23. Man found guilty of using dog as weapon 5- io Jr s, 3, S. e ii- & y m k. e ie 3, i0 z. 5 t r- A 3- 1.. ki- (s ry 4 r was the noted fine cence I. o pay, cence he i n g mick pled e said °rig", luting owes 30 in dates in for ge 23 Despite a plea of innocence, there was no doubt in Judge Garry Hunter's mind that a Wingham man had used a dog as a weapon. In provincial court Thursday, Andrew McCallum, 24, faced two charges of assault with a weapon, one involving a pitbull and one a golf club. In testifying for the Crown, the female victim explained that on the evening of Oct. 27 she and her common-law husband had returned from dinner with his children.-The son fell and while dealing with him, she realized that the daughter had gone alone into their backyard with the family's dog to let it go to the bathroom. Going out to join her the woman said she heard someone tell the girl to "f-off". Hearing his wife and daughter, the husband came out to investigate and went around behind a shed at the back of the property. As he tried to return, the wife explained, a "small fellow" moved in front of him and pushed him with his chest. "I stood beside him and told him he'd had too much to drink he should go home," she told the court. It was then she saw a second man, McCallum, walking towards her husband from behind. He had a golf club in his left hand and a bottle in the right. The pit bull, which appeared to be leashed was also on the right. At one point she said she overheard McCallum tell her husband he was going to smash his head in with the bottle. It was while she was focusing her attention on the smaller man, she said, that the dog bit her right leg. She testified that McCallum's response to her call for help was, "My f-in' dog doesn't bite." The dog then bit her other leg and her arm when she covered her face in defense, she said. Asked by Crown Attorney Bob Morris if McCallum ever called the dog back, she replied, "Not at all." Her husband ran to the road and stopped an approaching cab, which took her to the hospital, where she received three stitches in her right Continued from page 22 three years during which she must pay a minimum of $200 a month towards the restitution and $100 a month towards the fine. "I'm not buying any more excuses. You're not getting anymore breaks," Hunter warned, adding that if the money wasn't paid each month, for Beitz's next appearance in court, she "better bring a toothbrush." Fail to comply A similar warning was issued to a Brussels woman whose financial difficulties landed her in court. Tina Grummett pled guilty to a charges of failing to comply, breach, and using a credit card under another's name. Morris said that Grummett had applied for a card under another person's name, a relative of her common-law spouse. She ran the card up to $8,172.66. For this reason she was in breach of a probation order. Also she failed to make restitution regarding another matter as ordered. Of the $7,300 which was to be paid in six months $5,725 was outstanding. Counsel Tim Macdonald said the 33-year-old had been in a "bad spiral financially. She had gotten into a vicious circle and it was bound to come crashing down." - She had filed bankruptcy in August arm, and was treated for bites on her legs. Asked by Morris if the dog was on the leash when it bit her, the victim said when the dog "came towards my face, I didn't see a leash." In cross examination, defense counsel Frank Cameron asked the victim if she had hit the smaller man,- a 16-year-old youth, at any time. She responded that she had grabbed the back of his jacket. Her husband was next to take the stand. He said after walking behind the shed and seeing the men approach him, he felt it was perhaps not a good idea to stay where he was. As he turned back, one of the men jumped in front of him, bumping him with his chest. He also stated the youth had a stick with him and noticed a bottle and club in the hands of the older man. While confronted by the smaller man, the victim, hearing his wife's warning about someone coming from behind him, turned and saw McCallum swing "an object towards me, striking me in the middle of my left hand." Then hearing his wife screaming he saw her being "viciously attacked by a dog. I saw it lunge at her face and noticed it had already ripped and tore her pants and legs." The dog, which the witness said had been leashed, was not wearing one when it took off. After getting his wife on her way to the hospital, the witness said he got the car and followed the accused and his companion.. "When I found them, even then they approached me and threatened me," he testified, adding that he stayed in the car, until a resident, hearing the commotion, came outside and the victim asked him to call the police. McCallum and the youth, he said, took off when they saw the cruiser. Asked to describe McCallum's condition, the man said "he looked pissed to the gills." Cameron asked the witness why he hadn't called the police when he of 2000 and entered into a consumer proposal which she thought wrongly, Macdonald said that restitution was to be included. Now getting her life back in order, Grummett had $2,000 to pay towards the amount and has received credit counselling. She also felt she could pay $250 each month. While Macdonald suggested a conditional sentence, Hunter gave her a suspended sentence of one year to be followed by three years probation. A total of $2,000 was to be paid within seven days, then $250 a month for the next 35 months until restitution is paid in full. "If-you miss a payment for no good reason, you will be found guilty of breach and you're not going out of here on a conditional sentence," said Hunter. "You're going out of here behind bars. Tread carefully for the next 36 months." Voyeurism Due to the OPSEU strike a preliminary report could not be completed for a man who pled guilty to mischief in the February court. However, several letters were submitted for Hunter's consideration. The evidence was that Adrian Droog's landlord, while doing some home construction, discovered wires that led to a hidden camera ,in a bathroom vent. He followed the first heard sounds in his backyard. "I felt I didn't have to," was the response. Also under questioning he admitted he did not actually see the dog taken off the leash. Noting omissions in the police statement, such as the presence of a stick in the hand of the youth, Cameron wondered why more details were being noted during testimony. The witness replied that there was more that happened than what he wrote down. "Later more of a picture came back." Cameron suggested the confrontation did not take place on the victim's property, but rather that the man followed McCallum and his friend to the street where he confronted them. The victim replied, "I wasn't there." Allegations that he hit the youth were also denied. "Did you say you were going to kill that dog?" asked Cameron. "Nope," said the witness, then added, "I'd like to." Next to testify was Const. Mark Fraser. He stated that he saw the youth running through the yard with what appeared to be a stick. When he caught up with McCallum and the dog, the dog jumped at the officers and showed its teeth. Fraser said that while talking to McCallum, the youth came over. "It appeared he had been hiding." Both were taken for statements. Also asked for a statement was another youth who had been with the accused and teen earlier and caught up with them just as the confrontation began. However, Fraser, said, the youth's mother refused the request for a statement. wires the other way into the accused's bedroom. When Droog was asked what the camera was for he said "voyeurism," Morris states. Myers explained that the incident was out of character for the 28-year- old who is "ashamed of what he did." Droog got the idea off the internet and his mother believes he was interested more in the accomplishment of setting it up than the end result. - There has been no indication of any tapes made. Letters described Droog as honest, and having good judgement, who is helpful when called upon for charity projects at church. He was fined $500 and placed on 12 months probation which will include counselling. He was given six months to pay the fine. The camera has been forfeited. False identity Kevin Gieser of Wroxeter pled guilty to a charge of fraudulent impersonation. Stopped by an officer for speeding on May 15 in Moms, Gieser, who was suspended from driving, identified himself as his brother. He later contacted police and said he had given them the wrong name because he didn't want to-„be charged. He was fined'1400 and given six months to pay. Asked by Cameron as to the type of stick the youth had, Fraser described it much as the male victim had, like a branch from a tree. The first defense witness was the 16-year-old with McCallum that night. He claimed they had stopped on a vacant lot behind the victims' property to let the dog go to the bathroom. "I heard yelling and didn't think too much of it. I thought there was a party or something." Then, he stated, the male victim came running at them screaming. "He came into my face and flicked my hat off and pushed me. I asked him why he would do this-to a kid my size." The wife then came running down the alleyway, he said. "(She) was just screaming and Kiwi started barking." The youth said that when the woman took hold of him, the dog bit her leg and ran away. "I grabbed the dog and pulled her away. She's a small dog." His testimony continued that the husband pursued them after getting his wife into the cab, and that they ran away out of fear. Asked by Cameron if he had been drinking that day, the youth said he had had a couple of ryes. He also stated that McCallum did have a bottle but it was tucked under his coat. Morris, during cross-examination asked if the dog was off the leash after it bit the woman. The youth said he thought so. "All I saw was when she came running up the dog nipped her." When Hunter asked him why, if the bottle was hidden, the two victims knew about it, he back- pedaled and said, "(McCallum) might have had it out before." Cameron also called the youth who arrived later. The 16-year-old, corroborated the other teen's evidence, agreeing as well, that the dog bit the woman only once after she came out yelling. "She said she was bit, but just kept swinging her arms and freaking out." He claimed McCallum let the dog go after the husband threatened it. He also stated that while he knew McCallum had a bottle with him he never saw it, never saw him strike anybody or heard him threaten anybody. • The witness also said that the other youth had bruises on his face the next day from the altercation. Under cross exam, the witness said he didn't believe the dog had bitten the woman three times. The final defense witness was the accused. He explained the stick as something the youth grabbed later to' protect himself. While he admitted to drinking that day, he said he had control of the dog and had never had a problem with that dog , The dog's reaction to the police, he said, was because it was " all freaked out." Asked by Morris to explain the woman's injuries, McCallum said they were not from his dog. Morris also wondered why this woman would come running right up to McCallum. "Even though you had a pitbull." Morris pressed him on how the dog bit the woman if McCallum had control, and also if he did anything to help her not get bitten. When the accused said he didn't realize it, Morris said, "You're saying she was in great shape, just waling on (the youth)." "Right down the road," said McCallum. " In closing remarks Cameron argued there had been no intent to use the dog as a weapon. Hunter, however, countered that that would only be if he accepted the testimony of the defense witnesses over that of the victims. "What if I accept the victim's story that he let the dog go, the dog attacks and we're talking about a pitbull, and he does nothing to stop it." Noting that he would offer judicial notice that a pitbull is a dangerous dog, Hunter said letting one go creates a dangerous situation. With regards to the other assault charge, Cameron pointed out that McCallum r had offered an explanation for the stick. "And (the youth) denied ever having a stick which makes your witness a liar," said Hunter. As for McCallum, the judge said, "on the one hand he's going to crack a skull. On the next he's running away and you're talking about credibility." Cameron countered that threats are often made when people are afraid. Morris said the key issue of the dog assault was that the woman had said she was being attacked and no one intervened. Also, he said, the defense witnesses were not credible. Hunter agreed. "I accept the evidence of the victims. I find it a fact that the dog was released. There was no justification for the accused to release that dog, a pitbull or dog of a similar nature." He spoke of the officer's testimony regarding a stick which was corroborated by the male victim, and said he was "satisfied", the first defense witness was "a liar and I'm satisfied he's the one who started the problems to begin with." Hunter noted how McCallum "almost reluctantly" said he drew the bottle out at the scene, and said he also believed the husband's testimony regarding the golf club. "I don't believe for a inii.ute he's making it up." Prior to sentencing, Morris noted McCallum's record which included two prior convictions for aggravated assault, and while Cameron made a bid that his client be able to accommodate his full-time employment, Hunter said, "He's not going to work on Monday. Not on those facts and that record." Asked it he had anything to say McCallum said the dog was only a quarter pitbull and had not bitten after it was off the leash. Hunter continued to have his doubts, however, saying, "It borders on utter insanity to let the dog go in those circumstances. He sentenced McCallum to three months for the assault with a weapon and six months consecutive on the dog-related assault. He is on probation for three years during which time he is not to own or handle any dog. There is also a 10-year weapon prohibition. Judge offers stern warning Man says he saw wife being 'viciously attacked by dog