H&K in Sin City: Part Quatre
I have pretty much run the gamut of snark Howard can do in the remote location of Las Vegas. It is time to come back to Milborough and put into place the storyline that Lynn intended for Howard, i.e. he has the 3 charges she laid against him in the September letters. After internet searching for assault law in Toronto, which I guess is as close to Milborough as I can reasonably get, I came up with a website that discussed assault on a simple enough level for me. I will explain what I understand, and if anyone is more familiar with the law than I, they can feel free to correct me. This is not my area of expertise.
It appears that assault can be tried as a summary conviction (minor crime) or as an indictable conviction (major crime). The key ingredients that distinguish the 2 are whether or not the victim was injured and whether or not the assailant used a gun. Since Howard did not actually injure Liz or use a gun on her, as near as I can, he would be tried for a summary conviction. The website did distinguish between assault and sexual assault, with sexual assault on a summary conviction having a slightly higher maximum sentence (which I frankly found a little appalling that it was so light a punishment.) I am not sure if Howard’s assault would be considered sexual or not. The website did not list the distinctions between simple assault and sexual assault. In the September letters, Elizabeth called it assault and Elly called it sexual harassment. So, I am going with simple assault, because it would be stupid for Liz to file a sexual harassment charge.
From what appeared on the law website, it appears that Howard will be arrested, post bail or have someone post bail within 24 hours and then he will have to stay around the Milborough area until the trial occurs. This would allow Howard to continue to snark about Milborough unencumbered for some time. In the area in which I live, it sometimes takes years for criminal trials to come to court. For Better or For Worse may be finished before Howard comes to trial.
If the trial did occur, its success would hinge on Elizabeth and Anthony’s testimony. I am presuming that the 2 other women who filed charges after Liz must not have had a rescuer / witness like Liz did. Otherwise, they would have filed themselves earlier. So they may be in the “She said. He said.” category with quite some time passing since their assaults occurred. I suspect that Lynn never plans to mention Howard again, except in the way that she mentions Kortney, i.e. “It is good to be forgiving of bad behaviour.” So, Howard could get off when Liz and Anthony don’t testify, because they are too busy making their wedding plans.
Next: In the Jailhouse
It appears that assault can be tried as a summary conviction (minor crime) or as an indictable conviction (major crime). The key ingredients that distinguish the 2 are whether or not the victim was injured and whether or not the assailant used a gun. Since Howard did not actually injure Liz or use a gun on her, as near as I can, he would be tried for a summary conviction. The website did distinguish between assault and sexual assault, with sexual assault on a summary conviction having a slightly higher maximum sentence (which I frankly found a little appalling that it was so light a punishment.) I am not sure if Howard’s assault would be considered sexual or not. The website did not list the distinctions between simple assault and sexual assault. In the September letters, Elizabeth called it assault and Elly called it sexual harassment. So, I am going with simple assault, because it would be stupid for Liz to file a sexual harassment charge.
From what appeared on the law website, it appears that Howard will be arrested, post bail or have someone post bail within 24 hours and then he will have to stay around the Milborough area until the trial occurs. This would allow Howard to continue to snark about Milborough unencumbered for some time. In the area in which I live, it sometimes takes years for criminal trials to come to court. For Better or For Worse may be finished before Howard comes to trial.
If the trial did occur, its success would hinge on Elizabeth and Anthony’s testimony. I am presuming that the 2 other women who filed charges after Liz must not have had a rescuer / witness like Liz did. Otherwise, they would have filed themselves earlier. So they may be in the “She said. He said.” category with quite some time passing since their assaults occurred. I suspect that Lynn never plans to mention Howard again, except in the way that she mentions Kortney, i.e. “It is good to be forgiving of bad behaviour.” So, Howard could get off when Liz and Anthony don’t testify, because they are too busy making their wedding plans.
Next: In the Jailhouse
posted by howard at 9:23 PM
9 Comments:
I have the impression that the_beserker, our "Duncan" at ARB, has a good handle on this law stuff in Canada.
mst3k4evr who was posting as Kortney needed to take a break, so I am going to let the Howard / Kortney relationship sit awhile until mst3k4evr is back, or until I just can't stand it anymore.
Just out of curiosity, what are the legal differences between simple assault and sexual assault, when the assault is not considered to be an aggravated assault?
Wow, there's blogs within blogs!
Howard's charges under the Criminal Code (criminal law is federal rather than provincial)would be sexual assault. If the Crown elects to proceed summarily, the maximum sentence would be 18 months. If the Crown elects to proceed by way of indictment, the maximum sentence would be 10 years. Basically, if there's an assault that is of a sexual nature and/or the assault violates the victim's sexual integrity, it's sexual assault. Factors that the courts look at in determining whether or not a sexual assault has been committed are such things as the body part touched, the nature of the contact, any words or gestures accompanying the contact, and the accused's intent or purpose when making contact. Lack of sexual gratification on the part of the accused is not a defence.
The Crown might agree to a plea bargain to reduce the charge to simple assault, depending on all of the circumstances, but they tend to take a hard line with these cases. My guess? 30 days per charge if Howard enters a fast guilty plea.
anonymous,
That's really good information. Thank you. Typically, how soon after the arrest does the sentencing occur? Is there a trial, or is it done just with hearing in front of a judge?
Generally speaking, you can enter a guilty plea the first time you appear in court, if you wish to do so. Duty counsel (the Canuck version of public defenders: they will not act for you at trial, but they will do bail hearings and guilty pleas) will try to dissuade you, but you can do whatever you want.
If Howie were to enter quick guilty pleas (and assuming that the other fact situations are similar to Liz's,) and if he were ordered to serve the sentences consecutively, he'd be out in thirty days on parole if he behaves himself while in the reformatory.
On the other hand, three charges on similar facts is a lot, and unless he has a good explanation, he could be declared a "dangerous offender" or something similar, and he wouldn't get out of there for a very, very, very long time. (The dangerous offender designation is more or less equivalent to life.) But I doubt he'd get that designation if there's nothing that hasn't been revealed in the strip.
anonymous,
Thank you for this information.
If Howard does not plea guilty, then about how long would it take for his case to come to trial, in a small community the size of Milborough?
Another question. If Howard were to trade information he has another case the Milborough police were working, would that be enough to reduce the charges of sexual assault? And by how much could they be reduced?
If Howard decides not to enter guilty pleas, it would be likely be several months before the trial would be held.
Your second question is difficult to answer. Howard doesn't have any information to trade with respect to the sexual assault charges themselves, and the Crown generally doesn't like to enter into plea bargains with respect to such charges, particularly without the victims' consent. The Crown would be very concerned by the public safety issue: Howard's already been accused of assaulting three women. If Howard were coooperative on other matters, the Crown *might* agree not to seek a jail term on sentencing (they would want, at the very least, probation with stringent terms, including but not limited to non-association with the victims and therapy,) but that agreement would not bind the sentencing judge.
anonymous,
Thank you again so much for this information. I plan to have Howard not to enter a guilty plea and have his lawyer work on a plea bargain with information that Howard has his dealings with various nefarious characters. (Lynn Johnston probably intends Howard to get the dangerous offender designation, but we will see if she ever mentions Howard's fate.)
I am also unfamiliar with the conditions of bail and the role of the surety. Must Howard stay in Milborough while awaiting his trial, or would he be allowed to go to Toronto for work? How does the surety monitor Howard? Must the surety be unassociated with Howard, or can the surety be an employer of Howard? Does nonassociation with the victims mean not posting on a Blog, where the victim has been known to post?
If the justice of the peace believes that the surety can and will monitor the accused, he/she will accept the surety. Sureties are usually relatives or friends of the accused, but it's not unheard of for an employer to act as surety. The accused is almost always required to live with the surety.
As the surety is guaranteeing that the accused complies with the bail conditions, the surety would theoretically ask the Crown to revoke the bail if Howard had violated or was about to violate the bail conditions.
I don't see any problem with Howard travelling or working outside of Milborough. Travelling out of the country may be an issue, however, as Howard may have been required to surrender his passport to the police. (Howard doesn't need a passport -- yet -- to travel between Canada and the US.)
The standard non-association term provides that the accused must have no direct or indirect contact with the alleged victim. There's no way that that term would have been omitted from Howard's bail. Howard and Liz posting to the same blog is most definitely a breach of that term. If someone were to report Howard, he'd be arrested, charged with failure to comply with a term of his recognizance, and would sit in a detention centre until his trial (unless he was lucky enough to get a second shot at bail.) But who would report his breach? Not some clueless kids, and not the even more clueless Liz.
Post a Comment
<< Home