BURST
A central Alberta judge is facing a judicial complaint after jailing a pregnant woman who showed up late for court.
Earlier this month, Edmonton defence lawyer Samantha Labahn asked the Alberta Judicial Council to review the actions of Justice Gordon Hatch, a Court of Justice judge in the court’s central region.
At issue is Hatch’s decision to briefly jail Labahn’s client, Cinda Doyle, who arrived late to her preliminary inquiry earlier this year on charges of income assistance fraud. Doyle was 36 weeks pregnant and intended to arrive on time but relied on others for rides to the Wetaskiwin courthouse, Labahn said.
Doyle arrived a few minutes after Hatch issued a warrant for her arrest. While Hatch ultimately re-released her, he did so only after the day’s proceedings, over protests from the defence.
Doyle spent the rest of the day in suspense over whether she would be sent to the remand centre, and was escorted into the courthouse cells during breaks, Labahn said.
“It was so shocking,” Labahn said.
Labahn called Hatch’s actions “punitive” and “vindictive,” and suggested they were part of a pattern among certain central Alberta judges that includes last year’s controversial jailing of an Edmonton defence lawyer.
“(My client) is a very vulnerable person, not even including the fact that she’s extremely pregnant,” she said. “This is somebody who is not financially independent. This is somebody with addiction issues.”
“She just has barriers, which a lot of people in Wetaskiwin and around those areas have, and (Hatch) knows that, which is why it’s particularly jarring.”
The Crown withdrew charges against Doyle the following month.
Income assistance fraud allegation
Doyle was charged with defrauding more than $5,000 from income assistance programs between 2018 and 2021. She faced a preliminary hearing on the allegations in Wetaskiwin last Feb. 10-11.
By Hatch’s estimate, Doyle was around an hour late on the first day of the hearing. She apologized and blamed snowy road conditions. Doyle was also a minute late, by Labahn’s estimate, when court resumed after a break. Hatch warned Doyle twice, telling her she could be detained for arriving late.
The next morning, Hatch opened court around 9:30 a.m. and issued an arrest warrant after determining Doyle was not in the courthouse.
“If she arrives in the next 15 minutes, she is to be taken into custody, and we will continue the preliminary inquiry in that fashion,” Hatch told a sheriff, calling Doyle an “absconding accused.”
Doyle arrived around 9:42 a.m., Labahn said, upset and afraid she would be sent to the remand centre. Prior to Doyle’s arrival, Labahn and the Crown prosecutor agreed she could be re-released under the same conditions, but Hatch refused to hear the application until after the day’s proceedings. Hatch said Doyle “chose” to be late, and gave no indication he would ultimately agree to release her.
Labahn protested, noting her client’s pregnancy for the record.
Court continued until just after 1 p.m. According to Labahn, Doyle spent the hours in between seated at the defence table, moaning to herself in discomfort.
Shortly before court closed, Hatch agreed to re-release Doyle under the same conditions as her previous agreement. He justified the initial decision to take her into custody “under my authority to regulate my (court) process as well as the authority contemplated in Section 537 of the Criminal Code.”
“Ms. Doyle demonstrated yesterday a consistent pattern of not showing up on time,” he said. “She was about an hour late initially. She was advised to be on time after lunch, was late again, was advised at the end of the day to pay particular attention to the time when arriving for court on day two, today. She was late again. She was taken into custody as a result of her late appearance in answer to the warrant that was issued this morning.”
Doyle gave birth to a healthy baby boy on March 7. Prosecutors withdrew the charge against her on March 11, which is typically done when the Crown no longer believes a case is winnable or in the public interest.
“The Crown prosecutor assessed the file at the end of the preliminary inquiry and determined that it did not meet the standard for prosecution,” the Alberta Crown Prosecution Service said in an email.
‘Pervasive problem’ in central Alberta, lawyer claims
Labahn filed a complaint with Court of Justice Chief Justice James Hunter on June 6. She said Hatch’s decision to order her client into custody with no indication whether she would be released was “cruel” and showed “an absolute disregard for governing principles of law and a deeply flawed misapprehension of the provisions of the Criminal Code and the Charter.”
Labahn also described spending the second day of the preliminary inquiry worried her visibly stressed client would go into premature labour.
“This misconduct raises serious concerns regarding Justice Hatch’s general suitability for a position with extraordinary power, including the power to jail people for an obviously punitive purpose,” she said.
Labahn’s complaint will be reviewed by the judicial council, which includes the chief justices of all three levels of court, the president of the law society, and members appointed by the justice minister.
Unlike courts of appeal, the judicial council reviews a judge’s conduct, not his or her rulings. It has the power to take “corrective measures” including reprimands, or launching a full judicial inquiry.
Labahn said she has never seen a judge jail an accused for being later to court in 10 years of practicing law. She compared the case to that of George Lebessis, who was jailed by Justice Gordon Yake for 10-15 minutes over a dispute in court . Both Yake and Hatch preside in the Court of Justice’s central region.
“Given the other problems that have been expressed about the jailing of George Lebessis, this is a pervasive problem in the central region. I knew something had to be done,” she told Postmedia.
Hatch and the court declined to comment.
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