The next court date for previously convicted molester Father Yvon Arsenault is:
03 August 2017: 09:30 am, to enter a plea, Moncton Courthouse Moncton NB (45 Assumption Blvd)
Baspuit tells us that Father Arsenault has retained the same lawyer who once represented Father Charles Picot.
Why, do you suppose he changed lawyers? The lawyer who represented Father Arsenault on the last charges was Gilles Lemieux. As far as I can tell the lawyer who represented Father Charles Picot – at least on his last set of charges – was Dave Paulin. Perhaps Fater Arsenault wasn’t happy with the four years he has to serve behind bars after pleading guilty to nine of 29 charges? Perhaps that wasn’t as sweet a deal as he had hoped to attain with the plea deal? Anyway, for whatever the reason, he has retained a different lawyer, and his lawyer once represented serial molester Father Charles Picot.
Please keep the victims and complainants in your prayers.
*****
Unsettling news from the prairies. Very unsettling news!
The last set of charges against former Diocese of Regina Saskatchewan your volunteer Nathan Labatt have been stayed:
22 June 2017: Charges stayed against youth leader
What in the name of all that’s good and holy happened here? Charges in three jurisdictions: charges stayed in two jurisdictions and an acquittal in the third. Regarding the acquittal, on 31 March 2017 I blogged in part the following:
There is evidence that Labatt admitted he had inappropriately propositioned the victim, and that he had an explicit picture on his cell phone of the victim’s private parts, and that he assumed the victim was under 16.
Despite all of this, according to the paper “Judge Patrick Koskie ruled that the Crown had not definitively proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the victim was under the age of 16.”
Without having been there there is no way of knowing what exactly happened in that courtroom. Once we see the judge’s reasons for judgment we may have more of an idea. I hope and pray that it was not a case of the Crown failing to call a witness such as a parent, or sibling, or another camper, or another camp counsellor who could testify as to the year and therefore the age of the victim.
As it stands, because of ‘reasonable doubt’ about the victim’s age, the judge has ruled that Labatt’s actions were not criminal.
Yesterday was supposed to be a continuation of the preliminary hearing. Instead, this.news I wonder if perhaps “the” or “a” complainant is having a rough time and feels unable to proceed?
Is there an issue regarding age again?
If anyone has any information on this at all please pass it along. I will try to find out.
Please keep the complainant in your prayers/
*****
Hopefully by day’s end I will be adding information regarding what Father Denis Vaillancourt had to say in his own defence at his sex assault trial in Cornwall Ontario.
Enough for now.
Sylvia
And who knows? Maybe Father Arseneault didn`t expect the bill from Gilles Lemieux would be so high… These things do cost a very serious chunk of change. 29 counts. 9 guilty pleas = low six figures. But all Father Arsenault ever needed was Divine Providence, eh? At least that`s what he preached about… unless he was a charity con artist and milked the faithful… (golly gee; a civil action for negligent and/or fraudulent misrepresentation possibly??)
Don`t worry about Father Arseneault. God is taking care of it all.