Another unusual delay in the dangerous offender hearing for Cory Lawrence Bitternose has seen the proceeding postponed yet again – until January 2012.
Bitternose pleaded guilty in March 2009 to two counts of kidnapping, sexual assault causing bodily harm, assault, uttering threats and dangerous operation of a vehicle in relation to a July 13, 2008 attack on two women in Banff.
Subsequently, the Crown made an application to have Bitternose declared a dangerous offender. After multiple adjournments due to changing of legal counsel and a medical emergency for the Crown prosecutor, the hearing was scheduled for last November.
While the matter was set to resume at the beginning of April, Crown prosecutor Joanne Durant said a Gladue Report requested by the defence has not been prepared in time.
“There has been a rather unusual delay caused by the lack of a report the court ordered last June,” Durant said.
A Gladue Report, she explained, is prepared for aboriginal offenders and is very in-depth, touching on more cultural issues than a regular pre-sentence report.
“Mr. Bitternose has a right to have a report that is prepared properly,” she said.
The delay, said the Crown, is the result of a worker from counselling services assigned to complete the report failing to do so despite advising the court it was underway.
While the report is expected to be ready for the court by June, scheduling conflicts for defence, Crown and the judge resulted in the first available dates to resume the hearing being in January, 2012.
Durant said while delays never do any favours for the Crown, the evidence left to call is psychiatric evidence and testimony by parole officers and correctional officers, not civilian witnesses.
The Crown also expects a determination in June from Judge Barbara Veldhuis on whether or not testimony from two common-law spouses of Bitternose, along with corroborating evidence, is admissible.
Durant said for a dangerous offender hearing the Crown can call evidence of crimes for which no charges have been laid.
“We have asked the judge to make findings of the fact that these offences happened,” she said. “If she finds the uncharged criminal offences happened, we can provide that evidence and testimony to the psychiatrist.”
Dangerous offender status is given only to Canada’s most violent criminals. The Crown must show a criminal has a pattern of violent behaviour and a substantial degree of indifference to their crimes, in addition to the violence of the crime for which they are charged.
