A repeat sex offender dubbed “Diaper Boy,” should be kept behind bars indefinitely, Ontario court heard Tuesday.
The public needs protection from Steven Slade, 46, argued assistant Crown attorney Gary Nikota. Nikota urged Ontario court Justice Lloyd Dean to designate Slade a dangerous offender.
Slade pleaded guilty to internet luring in 2012.
Just days after being released from prison for committing the same crime in 2008, he took to the internet to chat with boys about sex. Sharing fantasies about torturuing children for sexual pleasure, he found himself unwittingly chatting with a Windsor police officer who posed as potential sex partner.
With a ticket provided by the fictitious 14-year-old boy, Slade boarded a Greyhound bus in and came to Windsor. When arrested, he was wearing white briefs with the words “Diaper Boy” across his backside.
But there is no evidence Slade has ever touched a child in a sexual way, argued defence lawyer Kevin Shannon. Pointing to the fact that Slade has already spent nearly 2½ years in jail – some of that time getting beaten up by other prisoners — Shannon urged the judge to sentence Slade to another two years in prison.
Upon his release, Slade can be subjected to a supervision order that includes him taking medication to lower his sex drive, Shannon said.
“I don’t think he meets the test for a dangerous offender.”
Windsor Spitfire Ben Johnson will not fight being made to stand trial for an alleged sexual assault said to have occurred at a downtown bar on St. Patrick’s Day in 2013, his lawyer told his preliminary hearing Tuesday.
Patrick Ducharme told visiting judge Bruce Frazer that Johnson will not challenge any committal to stand trial in the case.
After Ducharme made that known to the court, assistant Crown attorney Scott Kerwin said he would not call any more witnesses. The preliminary hearing, held in Ontario court, had been scheduled to last three days.
Frazer is expected to rule Wednesday on whether Johnson will have to stand trial.
The proceeding Tuesday heard from three witnesses – including the alleged victim and a former teammate of Johnson’s. Their testimony is covered by a publication ban.
There is an additional publication ban on the identity of the victim.
As the young woman testified Tuesday, Johnson averted his eyes from the witness stand where she sat. He stared at the judge or looked down at the defence table. The young woman, too, did not look in Johnson’s direction.
Johnson had originally opted to have a jury trial, but Ducharme announced to the court Tuesday Johnson had changed his mind. Ducharme indicated Johnson now wants to be tried by a Superior Court judge sitting without a jury.
Johnson, who turns 20 on Saturday, recently signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the NHL’s New Jersey Devils.
Johnson remains free on $30,000 bail, half of which he had to hand over in cash to the court. Two sureties, including his billet and a team trainer, each promised $7,500 if Johnson fails to attend court when required.
Johnson hails from Calumet, Mich., in the state’s upper peninsula, about a nine-hour drive from Windsor.
Johnson was arrested in March 2013, after an end-of-season gathering at Mynt, a downtown nightclub. A 16-year-old girl attended hospital and reported being sexually assaulted in a washroom.
Johnson was additional charged with sexually assaulting another young woman in the washroom of another bar three weeks earlier.
That alleged incident included a 20-year-old woman at the Krooked Kilt on Wyandotte Street West.
Johnson is scheduled to stand trial for sexual assault in the other case later this month in Ontario court.
Windsor police are searching for the car that hit a man who was rollerskating on Somme Avenue near Rossini Boulevard Friday.
The incident occurred Friday about 8:20 a.m. As a 26-year-old man on in-line skates was entering the intersection, he heard a car approaching from his left. The car struck his left hip, knocking him to the ground. The driver of the car did not stop.
The man suffered non-life threatening injuries and was treated and released from hospital.
The car that hit him is described as a newer Chevrolet Impala with a 7 in the first three digits of the licence plate. The car may have fresh damage to the front end or hood.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 519-255-6700 ext. 4211, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 519-258-8477. You can also leave at tip online at www.catchcrooks.com or on the Windsor police Facebook page.
A former union boss accused of stealing more than $100,000 from his local will forgo a preliminary hearing in the criminal case against him.
Richard Turton, 45, was the financial secretary of CUPE Local 2974 from 2010 until he was removed from office last year. Previously, Turton was the union local’s president.
Police allege that between January 2011 and May 2013, Turton stole money, altered bank statements and tampered with returned cashed cheques. He faces three charges for theft, fraud and fraud-related offences.
After a pre-trial conference held in private followed by a short appearance in Ontario court Monday, Turton’s lawyer, Paul Esco, said Turton will waive his right to a preliminary hearing.
Turton has elected to be tried by a Superior Court judge, a choice that will likely mean he won’t face trial until next year at the earliest.
Turton was not in attendance for Monday’s court date.
The local’s president, Ian Nash, attended court Monday along with another of the union’s executive members. Nash expressed frustration that Turton’s case has been up in Ontario court 17 times without a resolution.
Turton was charged in August.
The case has been put over again, to July, for Esco to get instructions in writing from Turton.
Nash said the local will file a civil lawsuit against Turton. Nash said a private auditor found more than $141,000 missing from the local as well as missing property purchased by the local.
Nash said the theft “crippled the local” for a time. “Financially, we’re on our way back.”
The local has 430 members who all work for the County of Essex. The workers include inside and outside workers, librarians, paramedics and other EMS workers.
Turton is employed by the county as a maintenance worker.
Turton is one of two former local union leaders currently before the court in Windsor accused of embezzling money from their members. Also up on fraud charges is Solomon Furer, former business manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 773.
Furer, 59, is charged with fraud exceeding $5,000 related to an incident or incidents during the three-year period between December 2009 and September 2012.
Additional charges were laid in court Tuesday against a driver involved in a fatal crash on Lauzon Road in April.
Calvin Joseph Crosby, 22, had been charged with dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing bodily harm. Tuesday, the Crown had a new charge introduced in court alleging Crosby had been drinking before the crash and had exceeded the legal blood-alcohol limit.
Crosby was the driver of a Chevy Blazer that flipped several times before landing on its roof in the northbound lanes of Lauzon Road just south of Tranby Avenue. The crash occurred April 4 around 2:50 a.m.
The crash claimed the life of Katie Robson, a 20-year-old student at St. Clair College. Leah Garrod, 19, was injured. Both young women were passengers in the SUV Crosby was driving.
Crosby, Robson and Garrod worked together at an east-end Tim Hortons near McHugh Street and Lauzon Road. After working an afternoon shift, they had spent the hours leading up to the crash at a friend’s house.
In an interview after the crash, Garrod said the Chevy Blazer flipped after being rammed from behind by another car.
The driver of a Chevy Impala has also been charged in connection with the crash.
Kyle Matthew Colthurst, 28, is charged with dangerous driving causing Robson’s death, dangerous driving causing bodily harm to Garrod, two counts of failing to stop at the crash knowing the young women were injured and refusing to give police a breath sample to test for alcohol in his system.
Colthurst’s charges will be spoken to in court later this month.
The early morning crash awoke residents for blocks. One of the vehicles hit a traffic pole, shearing it off at its base. Debris was strewn for more than a block.
The Chevy Impala driven by Colthurst was found several blocks north of the crash scene with a flat tire. The vehicle had heavy front-end damage.
A Lakeshore councillor has been charged with dangerous driving and failing to stop at an accident for an alleged road rage incident that occurred in February.
Steven Bezaire, 48, who is also a personal injury lawyer in Windsor, has pleaded not guilty. In Ontario court Tuesday, his lawyer set a trial date for January.
Windsor police charged Bezaire after another driver complained about an incident that occurred at the intersection of Tecumseh Road and Ouellette Avenue on Feb. 12.
Contacted Tuesday, Bezaire, said, because his case is before the courts, he can’t comment.
Rick Nicholls handily won re-election in Chatham-Kent-Essex Thursday night, vowing to survive another term in opposition.
The Tory MPP led from the earliest poll returns, with the gap widening as each new tally came in.
“We did it again,” Nicholls told his supporters at his campaign office on Keil Drive. But, said Nicholls, alluding to another Liberal government, “the battle is just beginning… we will survive.”
Nicholls’s short victory speech soon became Scriptural, with him thanking God for his win. Nicholls noted that his name was last on the ballot. “The last shall be first,” he said, quoting Scripture again.
Nicholls’s riding includes the municipality of Leamington. With an NDP sweep of the rest of Windsor and Essex County, the closest Liberal MPP will be in London.
“Unfortunately the people of Ontario have had their say. We have a Liberal majority government,” Nichols said. “We’re not happy about it at all.”
But Nicholls said he’s used to approaching issues from the opposition and building relationships with ministers.
“As official opposition we will continue to hold the Liberal government’s feet to the fire.”
Nicholls ripped the riding from the Liberals in the last election. Former MPP Pat Hoy took the area for the Liberals in 1995 and got re-elected three more times. When Hoy retired in 2011, his successor captured only 32.1 per cent of the vote. Nicholls, who was a first-time candidate last time around running on a platform calling for change, won decisively with 41.8 per cent of the vote.
This time around, the Liberals came in third behind NDP candidate Dan Gelinas.
In media interviews after his speech, Nicholls vowed to continue to fight wind turbines in his riding. “This municipality has been ruined,” he said.
He said he was incredulous that billion-dollar scandals could not only not bring down a Liberal government, but resulted in a majority for the party.
Nicholls said he fears the reintroduction of the budget that triggered the election. Liberal leader Kathleen Wynne vowed she would reintroduce it if her party won re-election.
“That budget’s coming back” Nicholls said. “With a majority, that budget is going to go through. Where is she going to get the money?”
Nicholls said he will continue to fight for seniors with improvements to health care. Seniors made this province great decades ago, he said. “Today, we’ve gone from a great province to a has-been province.”
But, he said, the people have spoken. “The results are what they are.”
The trial of a Windsor man accused of attempted murder for hitting his girlfriend’s father in the head with a machete ended in a mistrial this week.
Jurors in the trial of Ricardo Rudolph Daley watched as the alleged victim in the case had a seizure in the courtroom walking up to the witness stand on the third day of the trial. John Ouellette, whom the jury heard was the father of Daley’s girlfriend in 2012, was taken from the court house by ambulance.
Daley, 24, is charged with attempted murder, assault, two counts of assault with a weapon and possession of a dangerous weapon in relation to an altercation with Ouellette and two other men at his Hall Avenue residence June 24, 2012.
Defence lawyer Maria Carroccia said Friday she is considering how the trial should proceed. Daley had elected to be tried by a Superior Court judge sitting with a jury. A new jury trial could take a year to schedule, she said. Given that, Daley may reconsider, Carroccia said.
“It could potentially proceed as a judge alone trial.”
A drug dealer from the United States caught twice in Windsor plying his trade was sentenced Friday to another six months in jail.
Jermaine Deleon Newell, 40, has been in jail since his last arrest on Dec. 18. He wasn’t supposed to be in the country, having been caught before with a stash of crack cocaine and digital scale.
Newell was first arrested on Oct. 30, 2012, after Windsor police got a tip that he was dealing drugs from the Corner Bar on Wyandotte Street East. Court heard Newell had 13.8 grams of crack cocaine and a digital scale on him when police arrested him.
After spending a week behind bars, Newell was released on the condition that he leave Canada and not return except to attend court.
Police, doing surveillance on the same bar in December spotted Newell there. They stopped him as he left in a rental car. In the trunk, police found 7.3 grams of crack cocaine, a digital scale and $645 in Canadian and U.S. cash.
Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance sentenced Newell to 15 months in jail. With enhanced credit for time already served, Newell was sentenced to a further six months in jail. Upon his release, he will be on probation for three years during which time is his to stay out of Canada.
He is also prohibited from owning firearms for 10 years and he must provide a blood sample for the national DNA databank police use to solve crime.
The sexual assault trial of Windsor Spitfire Ben Johnson began Monday with the Crown tendering evidence that the hockey player has had similar conduct on other occasions.
Ontario court Justice Micheline Rawlins imposed a publication ban on the evidence heard Monday. The Crown witness who testified Monday returns to court for cross-examination Tuesday.
Johnson, 20, is charged with sexually assaulting a young woman in early 2013. According to police reports at the time, the incident involved a 20-year-old woman and allegedly occurred in a washroom at The Krooked Kilt, a bar on Wyandotte Street West.
Johnson was arrested in March 2013 after a second alleged sexual assault in the washroom of downtown bar Mynt Nightclub. A preliminary hearing in the Mynt incident was held earlier this month after which Johnson was committed to stand trial. That trial is to take place in Superior Court on a date yet to be scheduled.
Evidence heard at the preliminary hearing is also covered by a publication ban.
Johnson recently signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the NHL’s New Jersey Devils.
He remains free on $30,000 bail, half of which he had to hand over in cash to the court. Two sureties, including his billet and a team trainer, each promised $7,500 if Johnson fails to attend court when required.
Johnson hails from Calumet, Mich., in the state’s upper peninsula, about a nine-hour drive from Windsor.
The Ontario court judge who imposed a publication ban in the sex assault trial of Windsor Spitfire Ben Johnson is to decide Thursday whether the ban will continue.
Justice Micheline Rawlins imposed the ban Monday after the first witness in the trial began testifying. The witness, according to the Crown, was called to tender what’s referred to as similar fact evidence related to Johnson’s alleged conduct.
Johnson, 20, is charged with sexually assaulting a young woman on Jan. 13, 2013 at the Krooked Kilt, a bar on Wyandotte Street West.
Johnson was arrested in March 2013 after a second alleged sexual assault in the washroom of downtown bar Mynt. A preliminary hearing in the Mynt incident was held earlier this month after which Johnson was committed to stand trial. That trial is to take place in Superior Court on a date yet to be scheduled.
Evidence heard at the preliminary hearing is also covered by a publication ban.
Rawlins will hear submissions Thursday on the publication ban in Johnson’s current trial. Rawlins declined to hear further evidence in the case until she rules on the ban. The ban is being opposed by the Crown and a lawyer hired by the Windsor Star and CTV.
Johnson recently signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the NHL’s New Jersey Devils.
Johnson, who hails from Calumet, Mich., remains free on $30,000 bail.
As far as marijuana grow operations go, Joe Zambito’s was an elaborate one.
That’s how a Superior Court judge described the marijuana “factory” police found in an industrial building at 3966 North Service Rd. in 2010.
Giuseppe John Zambito, 45, who goes by the name Joe, was convicted Wednesday of two counts of possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking, marijuana production and theft of electricity for a hydro bypass at the building.
Two business associates – John Steven Derose, 37, and Giorgio Loiacono, 41, were acquitted of the drug charges against them.
The men’s trial heard Zambito had rented the building under the guise of it being the headquarters for a construction company. In it, police found no tools nor equipment associated with such an endeavour. Instead, they found 989 marijuana plants growing under lights governed by timer boards. Under a work bench over which hung a few screwdrivers, police found a bag containing 1.8 kilograms of harvested pot. A second room was in the process of being set up as an additional cultivation area.
The total street value of all the marijuana seized was estimated at more than $570,000.
Police testified a confidential informant tipped them off about the grow operation. Windsor police drug officers got a search warrant to enter the building and took a look inside while no one was around. They returned April 27, 2010, arresting Zambito and two Toronto-area men inside.
Hoa Tran, 45, and brother-in-law Simon Xd Lieu, 49, told police they were hired by Zambito to set up the grow operation. They set up the lights and instructed Zambito on how to hang tarps so no light would escape the building and tip off passersby.
The two men pleaded guilty in connection with the grow operation. As part of their plea bargain they co-operated with police. Tran testified against Zambito at the trial.
Zambito, in his testimony, insisted Tran was lying. He said he had subleased part of the building to Tran and Lieu, believing they were setting up a fish import/export business.
Justice Christopher Bondy said Zambito would have seen no evidence of such a business in the building. With the back door blocked by lights and sheets of Mylar, the only way for Tran and Lieu to enter the building would be through the rooms Zambito said he used for his construction business.
Officers testified that during their raid, the air was hung with the smell of pot. Bondy ruled that Zambito must have smelled it as well.
“I did not believe Mr. Zambito’s contention he knew nothing about the marijuana grow operation.”
Zambito insisted he was set up by the police informant. He said Tran and Lieu had subleased space from him and accused the police of destroying the agreement the men had signed.
Bondy rejected that testimony. Police would have been happy to find the subletting agreement because it would be positive proof against Tran and Lieu, the judge said.
“Nothing in the evidence leads me to believe this was a set up.”
In a 90-page decision the judge took more than four hours to read aloud in court, Bondy agreed with police that Zambito’s construction business was nothing more than a “ruse.”
“The only conclusion I can reach is Mr. Zambito leased the building for a marijuana grow operation.”
Zambito previously pleaded guilty to theft of electricity at the Brentwood Crescent home he shares with his wife, Luana, and children. Police found the dials on the hydro meter had been tampered with. On a shelf in the garage, police found a light similar to the ones used at the grow operation. Zambito insisted that light had been planted at his home.
Zambito also pleaded guilty to unsafe storage of firearms for hunting guns seized from his home.
The man, who said he used to own bars and restaurants in Windsor, testified he only pleaded guilty to have charges dropped against his wife. Luana Zambito was arrested at the public elementary school where she taught Grade 1.
John Derose left the courthouse smiling. Giorgio Loiacono said he has his own construction business and worries publicity about the case will hurt his prospects.
Paul Esco, Zambito’s lawyer, ushered Zambito, his wife and mother out a back door of the courthouse away from media cameras. Zambito friends, bailiffs Steve Tunks and wife Jen St. Jean, threatened a reporter and photographer to leave the family alone.
The case has been put over for sentencing on a date yet to be scheduled.
An Ontario court judge is to decide Friday whether testimony heard so far in the sex assault trial of Windsor Spitfire Ben Johnson can be published.
Justice Micheline Rawlins heard arguments Thursday for and against the publication ban she placed on the testimony of the first witness in the trial. She reserved judgment until Friday.
Johnson’s lawyer, Patrick Ducharme, argued a publication ban is necessary to protect the hockey player’s right to a fair trial. He said witnesses may read about testimony already heard in the trial and “tailor their evidence.”
Edward Posliff, the lawyer hired by the Windsor Star and CTV to oppose the ban, argued that if that were a real concern, the courts would never allow media to report on trials.
Johnson, 20, is charged with sexually assaulting a young woman on Jan. 13, 2013 at the Krooked Kilt, a bar on Wyandotte Street West.
In a separate trial yet to be scheduled in Superior Court, Johnson is also charged with sexually assaulting another young woman in the washroom of downtown bar Mynt two months later.
In the trial underway in Ontario court, only one witness has testified. The witness, according to the Crown, was called to tender what’s referred to as similar fact evidence related to Johnson’s alleged conduct.
The judge must still rule whether the witness’s testimony will be admissible at trial.
On a night out at a west-end bar in January 2013, Windsor Spitfire Ben Johnson demanded oral sex from a stranger, he exposed himself to a young woman he had trapped in a washroom stall and he tried to shove a woman’s hand down his pants on the dance floor, his sexual assault trial heard this week.
Ontario court Justice Micheline Rawlins Friday lifted a publication ban she imposed Monday on the first day of Johnson’s trial. The trial has heard from two witnesses, both young women who were at the bar on the night in question, but neither of whom are the subject of the criminal charge he faces.
Johnson, 20, is charged with one count of sexual assault in relation to the young woman he allegedly trapped in the washroom stall at the Krooked Kilt on Jan. 13, 2013. That woman has yet to testify at trial.
She is not expected to testify until the fall, when Johnson’s trial is to resume.
One of the two witnesses who has testified said she was dating the woman Johnson had trapped in the stall. She said they were at the bar with friends and had gone to the washroom together.
Women always use the restrooms in pairs, she testified, soliciting a smile from the judge in a rare moment of levity in the trial.
She said she and her friend were in the same stall. When she left the stall, a man she later learned was Johnson pushed her friend back in and shut the door.
“He was trying to close it. I was trying to keep it open. I wasn’t strong enough,” she testified.
The stall was then locked, she said.
She said her friend was trapped in the stall with Johnson for 30 to 40 seconds. She could hear her friend protesting, saying, “What the (expletive),” and “What are you doing?”
When her friend finally emerged from the stall, “She was tripping… she was really shooken up.”
Her friend told her, “He whipped it out and tried to make me do stuff to him.”
The trial has heard that a number of Spits players were at the bar that night.
Earlier this week, before the publication ban in the case was lifted, another young woman testified to having a confrontation with Johnson in the same washroom that night.
She said, with both women’s toilets occupied, she had ducked into a stall in the men’s washroom.
She said this was common practice at the Krooked Kilt where none of the washrooms had signs designating them for a specific sex.
Johnson had been using the urinal when she entered, standing with his back to her.
While she was in the stall, there was a knock at the door. She assumed it was her female friend since the two had also headed to the washroom as a pair.
When she opened the stall door, a man she later learned was Johnson was standing before her with his belt and fly undone.
He asked for oral sex. She shut the door on him.
The young woman testified that when she came out of the stall, Johnson was still in the washroom, still angling for oral sex.
“So are you going to give me a blow job or not,” she recalled him saying.
When she declined, he asked her to “at least” lift her shirt for him.
“I was at a state of disbelief,” she said, remembering that she had laughed at Johnson. “I found it crazy.”
She testified she never felt threatened, but Johnson was blocking her way out of the washroom. Two men the woman believed were Johnson’s teammates came into the washroom to retrieve him, telling him to “let her through.”
The woman said she later learned that, while on the dance floor that night, Johnson had taken a woman’s hand and tried to shove it down his pants.
Johnson’s lawyer, Patrick Ducharme, suggests the witnesses have colluded on their evidence. The two women who have testified so far have admitted to speaking to other prospective witnesses about the events of that night, sharing information that led them to name Johnson as the perpetrator. The trial has heard the complainant in the case went back to police to amend the date she said the alleged assault took place.
Johnson was charged with the alleged assault after another woman went to police alleging she’d been sexually assaulted by Johnson two months later at an end-of-season gathering on St. Patrick’s day. The second incident is said to have occurred in the washroom of Mynt Nightclub, a bar downtown.
A trial in the second incident will take place in Superior Court on a date yet to be scheduled.
Ducharme argued for a publication ban in the current trial, saying it would prejudice Johnson’s right to a fair trial in the second proceeding.
Rawlins, while at first imposing the ban Ducharme requested, Friday rejected his argument on this point and others, lifting the ban.
Rawlins said she at first was concerned with public perception if the media reports evidence she later rules inadmissible. But Friday, she rejected that concern, saying, “Being a judge is not a popularity contest.”
Both assistant Crown attorney Scott Kerwin, who is prosecuting the case, and Edward Posliff, a lawyer hired by the Windsor Star and CTV, spoke against the ban.
Posliff praised Rawlins’ decision to lift the ban. “The public should be able to see and hear what’s going on in our courts. This decision recognizes that fact.”
A standard publication ban on the identity of the alleged victim remains in place.
A man who posed as a doctor to win the trust of his victims before taking their money was sentenced Thursday to two more months in jail.
Darko Jovanovich, 32, preyed on anyone who came across his path. The court Thursday acknowledged 17 victims, although, through a plea bargain, Jovanovich admitted to seven crimes related to five people.
Jovanovich tried to bilk the family of a girl with a severe neurological disorder out of $58,000. Jovanovich did a phoney examination of the girl, diagnosing her with a lesion on the brain. Jovanovich drafted bogus documents to convince them he had scheduled an MRI for the girl in Detroit in advance of surgery in Chicago.
Jovanovich claimed to have paid for the surgery himself and had the parents sign a contract to repay him over five years.
James Heugh on Thursday, June 26, 2014, at Provincial Court in Windsor, was scammed by Darko Jovanovich. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)
Jovanovich defrauded a man in chronic pain out of $835 by claiming he had filed the necessary paperwork to secure him a prescription for medical marijuana.
Jovanovich defrauded Slobodan Djuric out of $6,500 by convincing the man he needed the money to send his father’s body back to Serbia for burial. Djuric said he felt so foolish for befriending Jovanovich and believing every lie that came out of his mouth.
“It scares me someone can be so good as a liar,” Djuric told the court Thursday in his victim impact statement.
Personal trainer James Heugh told the court of how Jovanovich not only owed him money for 12 sessions, but convinced him he had leukemia.
He said he can’t ever be compensated for the stress and worry he endured at Jovanovich’s hands.
What Jovanovich did to his victims is “heartbreaking,” said Ontario court Justice Lloyd Dean. “Can there be anything more fragile or stressful than a person’s health or a loved one’s health?”
He told the victims in court that they are in no way to blame for falling victim to Jovanovich’s fraud. “It’s not a reflection on your character,” he told them. “We, as human beings, trust more than we should sometimes.”
Addressing Jovanovich in the prisoner’s box, Dean said “This ought to be shameful to you.”
Jovanovich stared ahead, showing no emotion. He avoided eye contact with the public gallery of the court where his victims and media were seated.
When asked if he had anything to say, Jovanovich stood and said, “I’ve done enough harm. I’m sorry. That’s it.”
Dean sentenced Jovanovich to eight months in jail. With enhanced credit for the 120 days he has already spent behind bars awaiting Thursday’s court date, Jovanovich was sentenced to another 60 days. He’ll be out in 40.
Upon his release, he will be under the supervision of a probation officer for two years.
The jail sentence was what was jointly suggested by both the defence and Crown.
Defence lawyer Frank Retar said Jovanovich suffers from depression and has lately begun medication to treat it. He surmised Jovanovich posed as a doctor to overcome feelings of inadequacy instilled in him by his grandmother who raised him and was angry about him being born out of wedlock.
A report prepared by a probation officer for the sentencing judge said Jovanovich showed no remorse nor insight into his crimes.
Assistant Crown attorney Tim Kavanagh called Jovanovich “a person who doesn’t have a conscience at all.”
In addition to jail and probation, Jovanovich was ordered to repay $9,683 he fraudulently took from his victims. He must also pay $700 in fines that go into a provincial fund to help victims of crime.
To healthy people, he’d give grave diagnoses. To the ailing, he’d offer hope of a miraculous cure.
Darko Jovanovich would dole out medical advice with all the aplomb of a seasoned, compassionate professional.
There was only one problem: Jovanovich wasn’t a doctor. He was a fraudster who had so cleverly covered his tracks that even after his conviction for crimes committed over two years in the Windsor area, his past remains a mystery.
Jovanovich, 32, was sentenced this week to two more months in jail for fraud-related charges. He has been behind bars since March 4 when he was arrested for passing bad cheques, forging documents and performing bogus medical exams on the unwitting victims he had beguiled.
Jovanovich, a short, dark-haired man with bulging eyes and facial tics, did not pretend to be just any doctor. He told people he was a pediatric neurosurgeon with privileges at Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital.
That’s the story he gave James Heugh, a personal trainer who had the misfortune of meeting Jovanovich last fall. Heugh was in a South Windsor bar with a co-worker when he happened upon a client who was discussing business with Jovanovich over drinks. Jovanovich seemed pleased about the serendipitous meeting, telling Heugh he was getting married in a few months and wanted to get into shape for his wedding.
A friendship developed as the soft-bodied Jovanovich showed up for training sessions week after week.
Jovanovich would spend the sessions lamenting about the toll his work was taking on him emotionally.
“He said he has the memory of all these dead kids on his conscience,” Heugh recalled.
“He’s almost in tears as he’s saying all this stuff.”
Jovanovich would come out with things like, “We lost another one today,” and “I know I can’t save them all.” Heugh would offer a sympathetic ear.
One day when Jovanovich came into the gym, Heugh had a sinus infection. Jovanovich pressed his fingers into Heugh’s face, neck and armpits, an act police later termed an assault. “It looked legitimate,” Heugh said. “Everything he did looked legitimate.”
After the phony exam, Jovanovich drove away in his black Jaguar, returning 30 minutes later with some pills. Jovanovich said they were samples from a drug company and he instructed Heugh on how to take them. To this day, Heugh has no idea what the pills were or how Jovanovich got them. But he is thankful he never used them.
James Heugh is shown on Thursday, June 26, 2014, at the Provincial Court in Windsor, Ont. He was scammed by Darko Jovanovich. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)
Heugh was also suffering from a shoulder injury at the time. He had had an MRI which showed a mass in his humerus, the bone of his upper arm.
Of course, Heugh shared the information with his new doctor friend. Jovanovich showed grave concern, asking Heugh delicately if he had any family history of cancer. Heugh told him his grandmother and uncle had died of leukemia.
“He got this bad look in his eyes,” Heugh said. He remembers down to the letter what Jovanovich said next: “I was afraid you would say the ‘L’ word.”
Heugh was sick with worry until a CT-scan showed the mass to be benign and unrelated to the pain he was experiencing.
The entire incident soured his view of Jovanovich, but it also twigged Heugh onto the fact the self-proclaimed specialist might be a fraud.
In discussing his shoulder problem, Heugh discovered Jovanovich was not as familiar with human anatomy as you would expect a physician to be. One time, Heugh struggled to recall the name of the main muscle in the shoulder.
“You know, it’s called the workhorse of the rotator cuff,” Heugh told Jovanovich, trying to conjure the word supraspinatus. Jovanovich couldn’t come up with name either.
“That got me thinking,” Heugh said.
Jovanovich had yet to pay Heugh for a single training session. “I only have $100 bills,” and “I’ll catch you next time,” were Jovanovich’s usual excuses.
Jovanovich then offered Heugh a car in lieu of payment.
“I told him, ‘No, I can’t accept that,’” Heugh said. Jovanovich insisted that by taking the car, Heugh would be doing him a favour.
No car, nor money, ever materialized.
Jovanovich still owes Heugh $480.
Heugh knows he got off easy – financially and emotionally — compared to Jovanovich’s other victims.
Late last year, Jovanovich joined a local gym, befriending a female staff member there. The woman had a neck injury and Jovanovich gave her a free on-the-spot consultation.
Jovanovich convinced the woman she had a “pre-stroke condition” that needed immediate attention. He said he would schedule her for an MRI in Detroit so she wouldn’t have to wait. When the woman told him she was about to fly out for a Disney cruise with her little girl, Jovanovich told her, “I’d hate for you to die on the plane next to your daughter.”
The woman took the trip against Jovanovich’s advice. She worried about her condition the entire time.
All she really had was a minor injury.
Jovanovich never got to the point of getting any money from the woman, but he did with others.
He bilked one man who suffered from chronic pain out of $835 saying he had filled out the necessary paperwork to secure a prescription for medical marijuana.
He also swindled the man’s brother out of $1,350 by saying he’d have a relative fix a flooding problem at a rental property. The man wrote Jovanovich a Mastercard cheque for $350 to pay in advance for the work. Jovanovich not only cashed the cheque, but also charged another $1,000 to the man’s account.
As bad as that seemed, what Jovanovich did to one local family had even his own lawyer using the word “despicable” to describe it.
A couple had a daughter disabled by Apraxia, a neurological disorder that leaves sufferers unable to move at will. Jovanovich examined the nine-year-old girl in her home and told her parents her condition was due to a lesion on her brain. The lesion was operable, he promised.
In a follow-up meeting, Jovanovich showed the parents bogus documents to convince them he had scheduled an MRI for the girl at his hospital in Detroit in advance of laser surgery in Chicago.
Jovanovich claimed to have paid for the surgery himself and had the parents sign a contract to repay him the $58,000 cost over five years.
The entire scenario was a fraud. There was no MRI or miracle cure.
“That one’s the worst,” said Heugh of how Jovanovich preyed on the family’s hopes of a cure for their child.
The man who introduced Heugh to Jovanovich was local realtor Rhys Trenhaile. On the day Heugh and Jovanovich met, Trenhaile had just shown Jovanovich an $899,000 home in Southlawn Gardens.
To the Jewish owners who were home at the time of the showing, Jovanovich introduced himself as Dov Jovanovich, Dov being the Hebrew form of David. He immediately adopted what Trenhaile described as an authentic–sounding Yiddish accent. The intonation was so believable, he convinced the couple he had grown up in Israel and lived in New York before moving to this area.
This episode illustrated Jovanovich’s talent for more than deception.
Jovanovich spotted a baby grand in the home, and quickly sat down before it.
Trenhaile’s jaw dropped.
“This guy could really play. He was concerto class.”
So charmed by the young doctor, the couple soon poured a bottle of wine and listened to Jovanovich’s tales.
“He won them over,” Trenhaile said.
After leaving the house, Trenhaile and Jovanovich went to a sports bar in South Windsor for a couple beers. A well-read Jovanovich opined on geopolitics and bought rounds with a wad of $100 bills.
But like Heugh, Trenhaile, too, grew suspicious of Jovanovich in the ensuing weeks.
As is routine in any real estate deal, Trenhaile had asked Jovanovich to fill out government paperwork called Fintrac aimed at countering terrorists and money launderers.
“As soon as that came into play, he got indignant,” Trenhaile said.
Jovanovich’s refusal to sign the forms sent Trenhaile into detective mode. Trenhaile’s suspicions that Jovanovich was not on the up-and-up were confirmed when the realtor could find no listing for a Dov, David or Darko Jovanovich on any medical registry.
Trenhaile brought this information to police, but they were already on to Jovanovich.
Jovanovich had begun to infiltrate the local Italian community with his doctor persona. In this milieu, he claimed to be the grandson of a deceased doctor with the same surname who made house calls by bicycle and became a beloved fixture on Erie Street.
Jovanovich started visiting Guaranteed A Fine Furniture on Tecumseh Road East, where he introduced himself to co-owner Richard Vennettilli. Saying he was in the process of moving to Windsor and setting up a practice here, Jovanovich had Vennettilli sourcing $30,000 chandeliers and other pricey items that would be shipped from around the world.
“He played the part. He looked the part,” Vennettilli said. “I shook his hand. His hands were soft like a surgeon’s.”
Vennettilli, former chairman of the Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital Foundation and head of the Windsor’s Canadian Italian Business Professional Association, began talking up Jovanovich in the community.
“I was endorsing him,” Vennettilli said, still amazed at Jovanovich’s capacity for deceit.
“I’m telling you, this story should begin with once upon a time, because it’s a fairy tale. None of what he said is true.”
Jovanovich managed to somehow get a condominium at Club Lofts on Wyandotte Street East, where units go for up to $500,000. He picked out a dining room set and leather sofa and chair worth $15,000 from Vennittilli’s store and had them delivered there.
Jovanovich paid for the furniture by cheque. When the cheque bounced, Vennettilli’s brother went to the police.
Fraud investigators arrested Jovanovich on Feb. 19 at a house on Flora Avenue. They were able to find him thanks to an observant neighbour who saw furniture being loaded onto a rental truck in the middle of the night.
Brothers Tony, left, and Richard Vennettilli, owners of Guaranteed A-Fine Furniture in Windsor, Ont. are shown at the business on Wednesday, June 25, 2014. A fraudster by the name of Darko Jovanovich was apprehended after the brothers alerted to police to bounced cheques that were issued at the store. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)
Frank Retar, lawyer for Darko Jovanovich speaks to media after the sentencing of his client on Thursday, June 26, 2014, at the Provincial Court in Windsor, Ont. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)
After Jovanovich’s arrest, police put out a media release. Additional victims – 17 according to court documents — came out of the woodwork, saying Jovanovich had been operating in Windsor and Leamington for about two years. Police arrested him again on more charges.
One of his earliest victims was Slobodan Djuric. Djuric and his teenaged son, Aleks, were having dinner at East Side Mario’s one night in early 2013. As was their custom, the father and son were conversing in Serbian.
Jovanovich was soon in their midst, speaking Serbian too.
“This is how he meandered his way into our life,” said Aleks.
Jovanovich said he was the son of a prominent Toronto businessman. His father owned the Fabricland chain, he claimed.
Upon learning that Djuric installs windows and doors for a living, Jovanovich said his father owned lots of apartment buildings, too, and could send business Djuric’s way.
Over the next few months, Djuric had Jovanovich over for dinner, coffee and drinks. “He was a welcomed guest,” Djuric said.
One night while Jovanovich was over, Djuric fell ill. Jovanovich whisked him to Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital. Once there, Jovanovich told staff he was a physician. Djuric bypassed any emergency-room wait, had an MRI and was back home within three hours.
Djuric was thankful and impressed.
In April 2013 when Jovanovich told Djuric his father was coming to town, Djuric insisted they come for dinner.
“My wife is a good cook,” Djuric said.
On the appointed night, with a feast prepared, Jovanovich didn’t show up.
Djuric called his cellphone. Jovanovich said his father had suffered a heart attack and was in hospital.
The next day, Jovanovich told Djuric his father had died. “I cried for his father,” Djuric said. “I believed every word.”
Days later, Jovanovich came by the house, saying he wanted to return his father’s body to Serbia for burial. It would cost $170,000.
Djuric lent Jovanovich $6,500 to get the funeral preparations underway. Jovanovich pretended to repay him later with cheques from an overdrawn account.
Const. Rob Durling, a financial crimes investigator with Windsor police, said he comes across a lot of fraudsters in his line of work.
Jovanovich is a cut above.
“His delivery and the way he interacted with people was very smooth.”
In conversation, Jovanovich would be quiet, almost reserved, as he gained his victim’s trust. Durling described Jovanovich’s delivery as “efficient and calculated.”
In a court report referenced at his sentencing hearing, Jovanovich purports to have been born in Ottawa and raised in London. Durling said police have never been able to confirm his nationality nor citizenship.
Jovanovich claims to have been born out of wedlock to a single mom who worked two jobs. His mother, Nada Jovanovich, told the court in the same report that her mother raised Jovanovich despite being angry and bitter about her “bastard” grandson.
Jovanovich’s lawyer, Frank Retar, surmised Jovanovich grew up with feelings of inadequacy that led to him exaggerating his station in life.
In addition to speaking English, Hebrew and Serbian, Jovanovich is able to converse with Retar in Slovenian. To Retar’s articling student, Jovanovich speaks perfect Arabic.
But Retar admits Jovanovich still remains largely a mystery to him.
For instance, Jovanovich told Retar he has a political science degree from the University of Western Ontario. But a school spokeswoman told The Star Jovanovich was registered from 2001 to 2005 at affiliated Kings University College, but was deemed “ineligible to graduate.”
Curiously, Jovanovich registered for university under the surname of Jovanovich-Goldberg. The double-barrelled name never came up in the police investigation, Durling said.
A testament to how Jovanovich guarded his fake persona, he has no online presence and managed to avoid having any victim photograph him.
“He’s good,” said Durling – too good to be a novice at impersonation and fraud.
KINGSVILLE — Nelson Santos cruised to his fourth term as mayor Monday, handily defeating his only challenger for the position he’s held since 2003.
“I’m grateful for the support. I look forward to making more progress for Kingsville,” Nelson said in an interview after the results came in.
Santos, 44, a former Essex County Warden, was challenged by first-time candidate Bernie Ladenthin. “I always go for the top spot,” said Ladenthin, 62, explaining why he didn’t get his feet wet by running for council on his first foray into local politics.
“Why go for the low-hanging fruit?” the autoworker joked.
Ladenthin said this will be his one and only council attempt.
There was a spread of about 5,000 votes between the two.
Santos, a former county warden, was first elected in 1997 and was a councilor when the town amalgamated with the townships of Gosfield South and Gosfield North in 1998. He became mayor after one term as deputy and two as councilor.
Coun. Gord Queen defeated challenger Dennis Laporte for the deputy mayor’s chair. Queen, a former public school board trustee, has been on Kingsville town council since 2000. Laporte is a former municipal employee.
But the real race in Kingsville was for the five council seats, where there were 23 candidates and only one incumbent, Sandy McIntyre, seeking re-election.
McIntyre won re-election, but did not lead the polls. That honour went to first-time candidate Tony Gaffan, a barber whose father was once mayor. Larry Patterson, a retired municipal employee from Gosfield North, also a first-time candidate, ran second, with McIntyre running third. Also elected were novices Susanne Coghill, a bookkeeper, and Thomas Neufeld, who is a production manager at a winery.
Kingsville used Internet voting for the first time this election. Electors could also vote by phone. Despite the election being conducted electronically, results were slow to come in with candidates and their families gathered at Migration Hall waiting for nearly three hours after voting closed.
ESSEX — Incumbents were turfed, but the man with the waxed moustache was re-elected to the big chair in Essex Monday night.
Ron “Tout” McDermott, 76, narrowly defeated two-time challenger Ron Rogers to hold on to mayor’s seat. Rogers, 60, a former councillor from Colchester South, tried to unseat McDermott in 2010, coming 376 votes short. According to Monday’s results, Rogers lost by just 227 votes this time around.
“He closed that gap,” said McDermott, who has been Essex’s mayor for 11 years. “I think I’m gonna retire after four years,” he said, encouraging Rogers to run again.
Coun. Bill Baker ran third in the mayor’s race, followed by Andy Comber.
The biggest upsets of the night came in Wards 1 and 3, where incumbent councillors lost their seats.
In Ward 3, former Colchester South township incumbent John Scott lost his seat by just seven votes. Scott was edged out by Bill Caixeiro, who garnered 976 votes. In that ward, former Essex mayor Larry Snively led the polls with 1,148 votes.
“That one surprised me,” said McDermott, watching the results displayed on a screen at the new Essex arena.
In Ward 1, which encompasses the boundaries of the town of Essex as it existed before amalgamation, Morley Bowman lost the seat he has held for 27 years. Coun. Randy Voakes was re-elected in that ward, but he’ll be joined by newcomer Steve Bjorkman, who has been the chairman of the Essex Centre BIA.
In the former township of Colchester North, now known as Essex Ward 2, Richard Meloche was re-elected. Meloche has been deputy mayor for the past two terms of council.
In Ward 4, which encompassed the old town of Harrow, incumbent councilor Sherry Bondy was acclaimed.
“We have some new and some old,” McDermott said. “Anyway, we’ll be a team.”
While the town’s wards still embrace the pre-amalgamation boundaries, the north-south divide no longer exists, said McDermott.
“There’s a little bit that remains… but the young people don’t know about it, so it’s pretty much gone.”