In The News | Assault & Violent Offences

The city will have to wait to hear if a judge takes it to task for its escort bylaw, which a former firefighter is arguing negates the prostitution charges he faces. On Friday, the three-week pimping trial for the accused was adjourned in Court of Queen's Bench after some legal arguments. The accused's lawyer, Pat Fagan, is asking Justice Patrick Sullivan to stay all 15 prostitution related charges against the accused, 40. The charges include living on the avails of prostitution ...

Though many licensed escort agencies obviously offer sex for cash, Calgary police refuse to prosecute for prostitution unless someone complains. That was the candid admission of veteran vice detective Gordon McCulloch, testifying at the trial of former firefighter the accused of pimping hookers while running an escort agency. McCulloch, asked how many escort agencies he’d investigated in nearly seven years on the vice squad, replied two, “including this one.” After agreeing most escort advertisements are thinly-veiled promotions for paid sex, …

The city has legalized prostitution – that’s the argument being put to a judge at the pimping trial of a form Calgary firefighter that began in Court of Queen’s Bench on Monday. “Our position is he shouldn’t be charged with any of these offences because the City of Calgary has legitimized the sex trade,” said lawyer Patrick Fagan outside court on behalf of his client. “You can not be an escort unless you are employed by an escort agency, and …

Suspected pimp, the accused, was told by police and city officials that the escort industry fronted sex trade was legal, he testified yesterday. The accused told defence lawyer Pat Fagan he conducted an exhaustive investigation into the escort business to assist a friend who was setting up an agency. “Did you know what the escort business was all about?” Fagan asked his client. “Yes I did. The escort business is about sex for money,” the accused said. The former Calgary …

Calgary escorts must be fingerprinted in case they end up dead in a ditch, the city's chief licence inspector said yesterday. Mare Halat told a city pimping trial the city doesn't condone the escort industry providing sexual services to customers. But under intense questioning from a Calgary judge, Halat conceded the industry often hides acts of prostitution under the veil of a dating service. Justice Pat Sullivan queried Halat about Internet ads which the judge noted contained sexually suggestive material. ...

Strictly speaking, the city has not legalized prostitution. But, in licensing escort agencies, it has entered a morally compromised area. And, it should leave it. As testimony before a current court case shows, escort agencies are licensed to provide “companionship for discussion purposes.” However, a quick review of escort agency advertising will uncover no earnest promotion of the girls’ cerebral accomplishments. Instead, lonely intellectuals looking for an opera date must choose their companion from among the likes of “top heavy …

"For $50, I learned you could 'relate without getting close.' For $100, a girl would lend you her Bartok records, have dinner and then let you watch while she had an anxiety attack. For $150, you could listen to FM radio with twins." Back when he still had a sense of humour, Woody Allen penned a hilarious short story entitled The Whore of Mensa. In the above excerpt, he pokes fun at both the world's oldest profession and the real ...

Hours before tumbling into her death from the 22nd floor of a Vancouver hotel room, a Calgary escort was selling sex for cash, a pimping trial heard yesterday. One of the last known people to see the woman, who can’t be named, said he paid her $250 for an hour of carnal pleasure. The witness, who is also protected by a wide-ranging publication ban, testified he tracked down the woman through an Internet escort advertisement. After exchange of e-mails, and ...

RCMP officer AcquittedConst. cleared on assault charge. An incident involving a local RCMP officer has officials begging for the placement of surveillance cameras in Cochrane RCMP jail cells. On Monday, June 13, [a constable] from the Cochrane detachment was found not guilty of assault on a prisoner during an arrest. [the constable] was charged last November on a single count of common assault when a member of the detachment felt that his actions were not acceptable during the suspect’s arrest …

Cops start investigation into their own – judge’s comments prompt mountie assault probe

CALGARY – Was [the accused] being a helpful citizen or a vigilante when he pursued a teen into a residence after the teen allegedly assaulted a man with his skateboard outside a Cochrane bar? That’s what a jury must decide. That’s what a six-man, six-woman jury now must decide. “[the accused] is here for doing what he believed to be the right thing,” defence lawyer Pat Fagan said in his final argument to the jury today. “You have to ask …

Cochrane’s [accused] was justified in chasing an assault suspect into a home, but went too far when he bashed in a bedroom door. That’s what a Calgary jury ruled late yesterday after considering whether [the accused] was entitled in law to try to make a citizen’s arrest. Jurors acquitted [the accused] 29, of the more serious charge of break and enter, but found him guilty of mischief to property. Defence lawyer Pat Fagan told justice Adele Kent he will be …

[The accused] was justified in pursuing a teen into a residence after he allegedly assaulted a man with his skateboard outside a Cochrane pub, a jury ruled on Tuesday. But though the 29-year-old insurance broker was not guilty of breaking into the home, he was convicted of mischief for causing damage to a door inside the house. The six-man, six-woman jury deliberated for just over two hours before reaching its verdict. Defence lawyer Pat Fagan said he would seek an …

A citizen can still be a Good Samaritan, with limits, a Calgary jury ruled April 8. [the accused], 29, was acquitted of a break and enter charge in connection with an incident when he pursued an attacker into a Cochrane home. But the jury did convict him of mischief to property. Patrick Fagan, [the accused’s] lawyer was “thrilled” with the decision: it “sends the right message to the community.” “In spite of how the police feel, people are still entitled ...

[A] would-be Good Samaritan won’t have a criminal record for breaking a door while chasing an assault suspect into a home. Justice Adele Kent yesterday said [the accused] believed he was “doing the right thing,” when he pursued a skateboarder into a private residence. A jury in April found [the accused], 30, guilty of mischief for damaging a door behind which Tyler Hoekstra took refuge. Jurors acquitted [the accused] of a more serious charge of break and enter, ruling he ...

Science won out over sensory perception yesterday when a Calgary jury acquitted a robbery suspect. Four eyewitnesses linked the accused to the scene of the crime, but DNA evidence said he wasn't there. The accused was charged with the Dec. 7, 1996, armed robbery of Vladimir Gaca. Gaca testified that a fare put a handgun to his head and demanded cash. During an ensuing struggle, Gaca was pistol-whipped and was cut, before wresting the gun from his attacker and striking ...