Police probe hateful words painted at St. Anne Catholic High School

ssacheli@windsorstar.com or Twitter @WinStarSacheli

Did Dr. Nick Rathe make up a story about being the victim of a fraud or did another man indeed impersonate him at a car dealership and sign his name on loan documents?

A Superior Court judge is expected to make that determination next month when he rules in the public mischief trial of the former Belle River family doctor.

Rathe is charged for allegedly sending police on a wild goose chase in 2006. He claimed that a young woman he had hired as an office worker had taken his driver’s licence and used it to have another man impersonate him when she took out a loan on a used Hyundai Tiburon.

The woman, Michelle Timothy, testified Rathe accompanied her to Windsor Hyundai, saying she and Rathe were lovers at the time. Timothy later was one of several former patients who complained to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, which stripped Rathe of his medical licence in 2012.

During Rathe’s trial last week, court also heard a dealership salesman and financial manager testify they were certain it was Rathe and not some other man who signed the loan documents.

Rathe, who was convicted of assault in 2007 in relation to a road rage incident involving another woman, represented himself at trial. Superior Court Justice Christopher Bondy presided over the trial, coaching Rathe through his cross-examination of Crown witnesses. Bondy has reserved his judgment.

Apart from giving an opening address at the start of the trial, Rathe did not testify in his own defence.

A Windsor judge Monday dismissed drunk driving charges against a man who says he was roughed up by police during an illegal arrest.

On April 26, 2011, Matthew Donnelly was a law student at the University of Windsor. He was returning home to his Riverside Drive apartment about 2 a.m. when constables Brian Caffarena and Ronald Bercovici followed him to the third floor of his parking garage. At his trial last fall, Donnelly said the officers swore at him before throwing him to the ground and going through his wallet.

In ruling on the case Monday, Ontario court Justice Lloyd Dean said he believed Donnelly. Dean said the officers never told the man why he was being stopped and showed “an unacceptable, serious disregard for Mr. Donnelly’s rights.”

The police officers testified Donnelly was injured when he fell getting out of his car. Dean stopped short of calling the officers liars, but said he did not find their testimony “credible or reliable.”

The officers testified they first noticed Donnelly driving eastbound on University Avenue. One estimated Donnelly’s speed at 90 kilometres per hour as he approached Caron Avenue and turned north toward Riverside Drive. The pavement was wet and the car fishtailed slightly as it made the turn. The officers said Donnelly did not signal the turn.

Donnelly was driving a 2006 Dodge Charger. The officers testified they suspected the car was stolen because Chrysler vehicles are often the targets of thieves. They were in a high-crime part of the city.

Their “hunch,” which turned out to be incorrect anyway, was not enough to stop and detain Donnelly, Dean ruled. Dean called the arrest “arbitrary.”

The officers gave differing testimony about whether the lights and sirens were on when they stopped Donnelly in the parking garage and how they approached him once he got out of his car, the judge noted. But their testimony was “eerily similar” in other respects.

The officers testified Donnelly stumbled as he got out of his car, falling on his face. But the judge ruled Donnelly’s injuries – a bleeding left knee and abrasions to his left palm and the left side of his face – were more consistent with the officers throwing the man to the ground just as he described.

The officers took Donnelly back to police headquarters where his breath was tested for alcohol. While the test showed Donnelly had more than the legal limit of alcohol in his system, the judge ruled the results inadmissible because police had no legal reason to stop Donnelly in the first place.

As is usual in most drunk driving cases, police charged Donnelly with both having more than 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood and driving while impaired.

The judge ruled there was no evidence Donnelly was impaired.

Donnelly had no trouble turning into the parking garage where he had to make a series of tight turns up to the third floor. He wheeled into a parking spot next to a pole.

The judge said Donnelly’s ability to negotiate the parking garage contradicted the officers’ testimony that the man was “in a falling down, drunken state.”

Bercovici and Caffarena testified Donnelly’s eyes were glassy, his speech was slurred and he had alcohol on his breath. The breath technician at headquarters backed up their story, testifying that Donnelly was unsteady on his feet as he walked from the holding cell to the room where the breath test was administered.

Yet the video of the testing showed Donnelly’s speech was fine as he made coherent small talk with the officer about the upcoming NHL playoffs. He had no trouble getting in and out of his chair twice during the test.

Donnelly admitted to drinking beer before getting behind the wheel. “It’s not a question of whether he had been drinking. He admitted he’d been drinking,” the judge said. “It’s whether his ability was impaired.”

Defence lawyer Patrick Ducharme praised the judge’s decision, saying police can’t just stop anyone they please.

“I think the police, generally speaking, know that just because of the part of the city you’re in and the type of car you’re driving doesn’t mean they can stop you… It’s the arbitrariness of it.”

He said he was glad the judge believed Donnelly and not the police. “His rights were violated.”

Donnelly, now 28, works in Toronto as a corporate lawyer. He did not attend court and could not be reached for comment.

ssacheli@windsorstar.com or Twitter@WinStarSacheli

Twitter@WinStarSacheli

A cocaine dealer claims she is a battered wife who sold little bits of her husband’s drug inventory to make money to flee the abusive relationship.

But a man who says he was her former lover told a different story when he testified against her in Superior Court Tuesday.

Sabrina Lacommare, 49, was arrested in June 2011 with 10 baggies of cocaine and a big wad of cash in her purse.

When police raided her Lakeshore home that same day, they found more coke, scales, packaging materials and more than $8,200 in Canadian and U.S. cash.

Defence lawyer Patrick Ducharme told the court all the cocaine belonged to Lacommare’s abusive husband, Mark Anthony Trudel. While Trudel was in Calgary, Lacommare took some of the cocaine her husband had hidden in their home and sold it to his customers, Ducharme said.

But Steve Hillman told a different story. Hillman said he met Lacommare in August 2010 at Edge Nutrition where he worked. Lacommare would visit him and they became friends, then lovers.

Lacommare, a petite blond, had no job, but was always flush with cash and “dressed to the nines,” Hillman said.

When the relationship became intimate, Lacommare disclosed that she sold cocaine for a living, Hillman testified. She had been doing it for eight years and made $1,000 a day at it, Hillman said Lacommare told him.

Hillman said Lacommare carried a cellphone that rang incessantly. Lacommare would have brief conversations then would run off to meet her customers.

Hillman said Lacommare’s cocaine would come in parcels mailed in Calgary. She would pick it up at the post office in Belle River, then hide it in her home.

Under questioning by federal drug prosecutor Richard Pollock, Hillman said he never noticed any injuries to Lacommare that would suggest she was being abused. In fact, Hillman testified, Lacommare told him she once punched her husband in the face and threw a set of keys at him when she suspected he was cheating on her.

Hillman said their relationship petered out after she was arrested.

Under cross-examination, Hillman testified he was collecting a provincial disability pension and was supplementing that income by working under the table at his friend’s store. He was once caught smuggling a nutritional supplement over the border. Ducharme called Hillman a habitual liar.

Ducharme also questioned Hillman about a sex tape he made with Lacommare. Hillman testified Lacommare concoted a story that Hillman had made the tape without Lacommare’s knowledge and emailed clips from it to people, including her husband. Hillman said when he showed the video to police, they dropped their investigation because it was clear Lacommare knew about the recording because she was holding the camera.

Lacommare also tried to get a restraining order against Hillman.

“She was trying to ruin my credibility because she knew I’d be testifying here today.”

Lacommare pleaded guilty Monday to one count of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. Her husband had faced the same charges, but the prosecution withdrew them after police determined Trudel had been out of the province at the time of the raid.

Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance is hearing testimony this week in advance of sentencing.

A disciplinary hearing for a Windsor lawyer accused of misappropriating up $15 million from clients has been adjourned to March.

Claudio Martini, 50, was to have a hearing before a tribunal of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the licensing body for lawyers in the province. In advance of the hearing, Martini’s lawyer contacted the law society’s disciplinary tribunal asking for more time to review the case.

The tribunal granted the adjournment. Martini’s licence remains suspended and his trust accounts are frozen.

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A Windsor man who once served penitentiary time for abducting a 14-year-old girl he’d met over the Internet has been ordered to stand trial on child pornography charges.

Daniel Nickolson, 48, had a preliminary hearing over two days this week. At the conclusion, Ontario court Justice Marietta Roberts ordered him to stand trial on 12 charges — possessing, distributing and accessing child pornography, Internet luring, uttering threats and extortion.

A publication ban prohibits reporting on the evidence heard at the preliminary hearing.

Nickolson is facing another raft of similar charges that are being prosecuted separately. A preliminary hearing in that case is scheduled for February.

In 2009, Nickolson was sentenced to four years in prison for convincing a girl in Saskatchewan to run away from home to live with him. Nickolson was arrested on a bus in Winnipeg as he returned to Ontario with the girl. He pleaded guilty to child abduction and Internet luring.

Nickolson’s case heard in court this week has been transferred to Superior Court for trial. It will be spoken to for the first time there in March.

ssacheli@windsorstar.com or Twitter@WinStarSacheli

Twitter@WinStarSacheli

He slammed her face against the kitchen counter, then threw her to the floor.

He belittled her. He choked her. When she was bedridden with cancer, he left her without food or water.

A weeping Sabrina Lacommare testified Thursday to abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband, Mark Anthony Trudel.

But Trudel is not on trial and no one has testified to corroborate Lacommare’s story.

Lacommare, 49, pleaded guilty this week to possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. She took to the witness stand Thursday in her bid for leniency in sentencing.

Lacommare was arrested in June 2011 with 14 grams of cocaine in her purse, distributed into 10 packets ready for sale. Also in her purse, she had $1,345 in Canadian cash and another US$190. In her car, an older model Grand Prix, police found a notebook containing a debt list.

Lacommare told Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance the cocaine she had already sold and the packets still in her purse belonged to Trudel. She said Trudel was a drug dealer and had been throughout their marriage.

Trudel was in Calgary at the time, meeting with drug contacts. Lacommare said she planned to sell some of the cocaine Trudel had stashed in their Lakeshore home to make enough money to flee the abusive marriage while Trudel was away.

Court has heard police found cocaine and cash stashed throughout the kitchen. Behind a panel above the fridge were four packets of cocaine, totalling four ounces. In a drawer in the island there were two bags – 17 grams in one and 1.8 grams in another labelled, “Doug.”

There was $3,000 found in a pink purse in a kitchen drawer, and another US$120 in a billfold on the kitchen counter. In the kitchen pantry was another $3,560, $2000 of which was bundled with a rubber band and labelled, “June 3” in handwriting Lacommare admitted was hers.

Federal drug prosecutor Richard Pollock asked Lacommare, with all the money in the house and her husband due home in days, why she hadn’t already left.

Lacommare said she took small amounts of cocaine to sell, but would never dream of leaving with her husband’s money.

“He would hunt me down and kill me.”

After her arrest, Lacommare said her lawyer, Patrick Ducharme, suggested she co-operate with police. She offered a statement as to her husband’s drug dealing and the names of some of his customers. Two, she said, were police officers.

Also after her arrest, Lacommare went to police complaining of assault, threats and harassment. Trudel was charged on three occasions. The first two times the charges were withdrawn or dismissed. In August 2012, Trudel was convicted of harassing Lacommare and was sentenced to 53 days in jail.

Lacommare’s former lover testified the woman was dealing drugs for eight years before she was arrested. Steve Hillman testified he never saw any injuries on her body suggesting abuse.

Lacommare testified Thursday that Hillman was lying and conspiring with Trudel to discredit her.

The hearing is set to continue into February.

Super Bowl XLIX hasn’t even begun, but the game has already gone into overtime for one captive audience.

Staff at Windsor’s Southwest Detention Centre will work late Sunday to allow inmates to watch the NFL championship game.

“The minor cost associated with the extra work is inconsequential compared to the potential benefits of continued positive inmate behaviour,” Brent Ross, spokesman for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, said Friday.

Ross said staff will work an additional hour Sunday to allow inmates to watch the game in its entirety. Normally, inmates would be back in their cells without access to televisions.

The game is a reward for good behaviour.

“An important part of inmate rehabilitation is helping them understand the importance of taking responsibility for their actions,” Ross said. “This is one of ways we are working to ensure that we are providing an environment that focuses on rehabilitation and reintegration.”

The Ministry did not comment on how much it will cost in overtime wages, but called the cost “minor.”

ssacheli@windsorstar.com or on Twitter @WinStarSacheli

Cellphone contract scams. Identity theft. Fraudulent credit cards. Illegally imported cars.

Superior Court Monday heard Windsor man Ahmad Aref Sannan had his fingers in all manner of fraud. But Sannan, it’s expected, will argue police got the evidence against him illegally.

Sannan, 49, is on trial, charged with 68 crimes all related to fraud. In his Kenilworth Drive home, police found Lebanese and Morrocan passports, Canadian citizenship documents, U.S. immigration cards, Canadian social insurance number cards, Ontario photo health cards and credit cards under dozens of names. Also found was a Transport Canada Registrar of Imported Vehicles stamp.

Monday, court heard testimony related to his alleged role in a 2010 scheme that used stolen identities to get expensive smartphones from Future Shop.

Sannan is accused of signing long-term contracts under assumed names, getting the cellphones at a nominal charge or for free at the time of purchase. It’s alleged he would then resell the phones without Future Shop or the cellphone company ever getting paid.

Two Future Shop employees – Adel Abdulkader and Farshad Masheli – pleaded guilty in 2011 to their roles in the scheme. They are expected to testify against Sannan.

Sean Seebransingh testified Monday he was the manager at Future Shop when he learned his store was being defrauded through the cellphone scheme.

He was at a local Chrysler dealership getting his car detailed one day when a worker there approached him about a phone he had purchased online. Seebransingh said the worker told him the phone had been purchased originally at Future Shop, but the cellphone company insisted the original purchase was fraudulent.

Seebransingh brought the information to Terry Dipple, who was then manager of the cellphone department at Future Shop. Dipple said he traced the origin of the phone and confirmed it had indeed been purchased at Future Shop.

Dipple said he subsequently received complaints from people who said they were being billed for cellphones they had never purchased. “I received two complaints. I know there were more than that.”

The store had surveillance video that showed the fraudulent purchases, Dipple said. He was at the store when one employee was arrested and led out in handcuffs by police.

Assistant Crown attorney Gary Nikota filed with the court more than 50 cell phone contracts police allege were fraudulent.

Dipple explained that, under the contracts, customers could get phones for free if they signed up for three-year contracts. In some of the contracts, customers would pay $29 for a BlackBerry worth $399, and get a $50 Future Shop gift card as a bonus.

As part of the investigation into the scam, police raided Sannan’s home in October 2010. All but two of the 68 charges Sannan faces relate to items found during that search.

Defence lawyer Frank Miller questions the legality of the search, claiming Sannan’s constitutional rights were violated.

In a separate proceeding Sannan and his family are suing Windsor police for malicious prosecution. His $5.5-million lawsuit, launched in 2012, is still before the courts.

Sannan’s criminal trial is scheduled to continue before Superior Court Justice Scott Campbell for three weeks.

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Baldev Singh, where are you?

The Toronto-area trucker, convicted of trying to smuggle 69 kilograms of cocaine into Canada, did not show up for court in Windsor Tuesday. He didn’t show up in December either when he was supposed to have a sentencing hearing.

The federal Crown wants Singh sentenced in absentia to 12 to 15 years in prison.

But Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance isn’t sure that’s the right thing to do.

“It is a potentially unfit sentence that is merely symbolic.”

Singh, 45, was convicted in September after testifying at trial that he had no knowledge he was transporting cocaine when he crossed the Ambassador Bridge on the morning of March 19, 2009.

Singh was caught when his truck was randomly selected for a training exercise with a drug sniffing dog. The handler was in the process of hiding a dummy stash in a crate in Singh’s trailer. When she removed a bag of oranges to hide the training aid, the officer found 21 bricks of cocaine in the crate.

Among the evidence connecting Singh to the drugs was cocaine residue found on suitcases in the cab of the truck. There were impressions on the top of the bins containing the oranges that matched the wheels on the suitcases. Investigators believe the cocaine had been transferred from the suitcases into the crate after all the crates had been loaded into the trailer.

Singh tried to argue he’d found the suitcases in the garbage.

Among other testimony heard at trial was that Singh’s truck had crossed the border bearing signs that read Omni. On the way back into Canada, the signs read East West Trucking Inc. Singh testified the company changed names while he was on his trip to Woodlake, Calif. He said new signs were waiting for him at a truck stop in Oklahoma City.

Pomerance in September ordered a background report on Singh before the sentencing hearing. The probation officer who was to prepare the report said he never showed up for his interview.

Pomerance said Tuesday that, without the information that report would provide, she would have difficulty determining what a fit sentence would be in the case. She doesn’t know if there are any mitigating facts she should consider.

But federal drug prosecutor Richard Pollock said Singh obviously doesn’t care for the court to know anything about his personal life. By absconding, the accused has waived his right to place that information before you.”

Pomerance responded: “He has forfeited his right to be heard, but has he forfeited his right to a fit sentence?”

Pomerance agreed accused people should not be allowed to “hijack” court proceedings. But this is not a trial, Pomerance said. Singh has already been convicted and could be sentenced when he is found.

She had reserved her decision in the case.

Singh had a lawyer at trial, but Pomerance let him off the record in December after he lost contact with Singh.

Singh was free on $210,000 bail when he fled. He put up $40,000 in cash and promised another $25,000 if he broke any conditions of his release. Two people promised to supervise Singh while he was free, backing up that promise with cash. Sarbjit Kaur Cheema, 37, of Brampton, deposited $5,000 in cash with the court. Pritam Hansra, 58, also of Brampton, promised $140,000.

The Crown has begun proceedings to get that money.

ssacheli@windsorstar.com or on Twitter @WinStarSacheli

ssacheli@windsorstar.com or Twitter@WinStarSacheli

Former high school teacher Mark Baggio, convicted for having sex with students, Thursday blamed one his victims for her emotional troubles, saying the young woman has refused counselling and medication.

Baggio is fighting a civil lawsuit by the woman. He is legally liable for damages, Superior Court Justice Thomas Carey has already ruled. Now, the judge must assess how much Baggio will pay.

The woman, who originally claimed $6.8 million in damages, is now seeking just over $500,000 plus legal costs. She is also seeking damages for loss of future income, but that will be determined at a later time.

She is referred to in court documents as Jane Doe, her identity protected by a publication ban.

Baggio, who was a guidance counsellor, religion teacher and coach at F.J. Brennan high school, was convicted in 2008 of sexual assault, sexual exploitation and luring a child for the intimate relationship he had with Jane Doe beginning in 2002 when she was 14 years old.

Baggio was convicted of the same crimes related to a second student. She also sued and has settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Richard Pollock, Jane Doe’s lawyer, said the abuse Baggio inflicted on her was exacerbated by the fact Baggio maintained his innocence and forced her to testify at his criminal trial.

During cross-examination at trial, she was accused of lying.

The emotional toll of the trial led her to drop out of university and psychiatric experts have said she shows symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“She has been unable to move on from that experience,” Pollock told Carey.

Despite his criminal conviction, Baggio refused to admit he had a sexual relationship with the former student, prolonging the civil suit.

“He has continued to deny and he can continue to deny till kingdom come, but that comes at a price,” Pollock said.

He argued Jane Doe deserves punitive damages for the more than six years her civil case has languished, as well as the three years the case was before the criminal courts.

Baggio, who has no lawyer representing him in court, said he too, has suffered.

“I am trying to move forward just like everyone else,” Baggio said. “Personally, it’s been nine years, more than nine years.”

The judge appeared sympathetic. “This has taken a toll on you,” Carey said.

The judge went on to compliment Baggio’s deportment in court.

Carey reserved his decision on damages. According to civil court rules, he must deliver a judgment within three months.

ssacheli@windsorstar.com or Twitter@WinStarSacheli

On the day local cocaine kingpin Shawn Joseph Evon was arrested, he forgave $100,000 in drug debts.

It was no small sum, even for a man with more than $320,000 in cash under a floorboard in his bedroom, and another $2,633 scattered about the room. But Evon would spend the next three years in jail, so there would be no way for him to collect.

“Believe me or not, I walked away from it all,” Evon said Friday during a hearing in Superior Court to determine what should become of the cash police seized.

Defence lawyer Maria Carroccia argued a portion of it should come to her in legal fees. Prosecutor Richard Pollock argued Evon’s money is proceeds of crime and should go into federal coffers. Pollock suggested Evon should have applied for Legal Aid if he couldn’t afford a lawyer.

Evon, 37, was one of 13 people arrested in pre-dawn raids Jan. 9, 2012. Evon had been the target of a 4½ -month investigation that led police to members of his syndicate.

Earlier Friday, Jason Andrew Potter was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for his role in the drug operation. Potter was one of Evon’s runners and he had 2.2 kilograms of powdered cocaine and 400 grams of crack cocaine in his Sandwich Street apartment. The drugs belonged to Evon, who used the apartment as a stash house.

In a rare glimpse into the lifestyle of drug kingpins, Evon took to the witness stand Friday to detail his finances from his decade-long career as a dealer. In addition to the stash of cash, Evon owned four acres of land on County Road 50 in Colchester, and was in the process of building a house on the property when he was arrested. He had already sunk $200,000 in the home before it was seized by police under proceeds of crime legislation.

The house and property was in the name of his parents, William and Sandra Evon. Evon admitted to hiding assets by putting them in the names of his parents and others. He said he did this with vehicles, to save money on insurance.

Evon lived in his parents’ home on Matchette Road. He paid rent, he said, insisting the home was not his. The vehicles his parents drove, including his father’s Harley Davidson motorcycle, did not belong to him.

Evon admitted to having no legitimate means of support. His parents, however, held down jobs, he said.

Among Evon’s vehicles was a Cadillac Escalade he said he sold after his arrest to pay the legal fees associated with the Colchester property and to pay Carroccia a $10,000 retainer.

He liked buying cars that were insurance writeoffs, and fixing them up, he said. The Escalade was one such car.

At the time of his arrest, Evon was dating Danielle Patrick. They were in bed together at the time of the raid. Evon said he bought Patrick about $10,000 worth of jewelry during the year they were together.

But Evon had some bling of his own. In a safe under the floorboards, tucked in with the wad of cash, was a chain-link necklace fashioned out of $12,000 worth of gold.

Evon said he used his drug proceeds to buy “necessities and luxuries.” He supported Patrick, helped his parents with bills and financially supported a child he had fathered with another woman.

At the time of his January 2012 arrest, Evon was out on bail pending appeal of a 2011 conviction for seven drug offences. Police got court permission to tap his phones, leading them to arrest his associates. In addition to Potter, Gerald Lauzon, Raymond Caza, Michael Broughton and Yvette Lucier were convicted and sentenced for their role in the ring.

Evon has pleaded guilty to six crimes related to trafficking in cocaine and crack cocaine and possessing proceeds of crime. He is to be sentenced next month by Justice Renee Pomerance who is also to rule on the money issue.

Windsor’s newest Superior Court judge made his television debut in Miami in 1976.

Kirk Munroe was just three years out of law school and was working as an assistant state attorney in Florida. He was prosecuting two Miami beach cops who had burglarized a restaurant near the police station. In a test case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, there were cameras in the courtroom.

“I hadn’t been around very long,” Munroe said Monday. “But I got thrown into these big deal cases.”

Munroe is among five new appointments to Ontario Superior Court. He will sit in Windsor where he has practised as a criminal defence lawyer for the past two decades.

Munroe was born and raised in Miami and attended law school at Boston University. He became a member of the Florida bar and tried cases in several U.S. states. After a stint with the Florida state’s attorney office, he was a lawyer in a small boutique firm that specialized in commercial litigation going after criminals who defrauded banks in South American and Europe.

In 1995, he moved to Essex County where he settled on his ancestral homestead on the shores of Lake Erie with his wife, Elizabeth, and three children.

He has been a sole practitioner with offices in Windsor and Kingsville since then.

Defence lawyer Maria Carroccia remembers when Munroe came to town, an experienced trial lawyer freshly minted by the Ontario bar. She has been co-counsel with him on as many as 100 serious cases.

“For me, his appointment is bittersweet,” she said. “I think he will be an excellent addition to the Superior Court bench, but I will miss trying cases with him. He is always well-prepared and thoughtful. He is a gentleman. He fought valiantly for his clients. He’s just an excellent advocate.”

Munroe is the past-president of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association of Windsor and Essex County, the position Carroccia now holds. He has been president of the Essex Law Association and has been a sessional instructor in criminal law at the University of Windsor since 2003.

This week, he was busy closing his practice. He has about 50 clients with cases pending who now need a new lawyer. And other firms are already vying to scoop up his longtime secretary.

Munroe will be sworn in March 2.

ssacheli@windsorstar.com or on Twitter @WinStarSacheli

A fraudster was sentenced this week to two years’ probation and fined $4,000 for assuming other people’s identities and signing cellphones contracts and credit cards in their names.

But Ahmad Aref Sannan, 49, walked away from 75 other charges he was facing, most related to a vast collection of bogus international passports, Canadian immigration documents, driver’s licences and SIN cards police found in his Kenilworth Drive home.

Sannan entered guilty pleas to three fraud charges. The pleas came a week into what was to be a three-week trial in Superior Court.

Sannan was arrested in October 2010 after he was implicated in a scheme where fraudsters were buying cell phone contracts at Future Shop using stolen identities. Two Future Shop employees filled out the contracts using information Sannan provided.

The cellphones, often free or sold for a nominal charge with long-term contracts, were then resold online or overseas.

“Sannan was painted as the mastermind of the scheme,” defence lawyer Frank Miller said Wednesday. But Sannan’s accomplices – Farshad Masheli and Adel Abdulkader – did that to minimize their own role in the fraud and secure lenient sentences of house arrest, Miller said. “They had painted a picture of Sannan as this great Svengali character, which wasn’t true.”

Of dozens of bogus contracts filled out by the two men, security camera footage showed Sannan leaving Future Shop with only seven cellphones obtained fraudulently.

Police raided Sannan’s home and found a room full of fake ID — Lebanese and Moroccan passports, Canadian citizenship documents, U.S. immigration cards, social insurance number cards, Ontario photo health cards and credit cards under dozens of names. Also found was a Transport Canada Registrar of Imported Vehicles stamp. All the charges related to those documents were dropped in exchange for the guilty plea.

But police also found documents related to the cellphone fraud, and credit card applications Sannan had taken out using stolen SINs.

As part of his sentence, Sannan must pay back the National Bank of Canada and the CIBC $10,000 each for debt they had written off.

He must also make restitution to Future Shop in the amount of $3,285.

It was a Sunday afternoon and a 10-year-old girl was shopping at Walmart with her dad.

A man had snuck up behind her and was taking a picture. He was holding his cellphone under her pink skirt.

Michael Thomas Guerard, 25, was convicted Wednesday of voyeurism for the Aug. 31 incident. He was sentenced to three months in jail followed by two years’ probation. He must take counselling, he can have no contact with anyone under the age of 16 and he can’t possess any cellphone capable of taking photos or videos.

On his cellphone, Guerard had a collection of similar photos and videos as well as images of girls and women in yoga pants.

Guerard was caught thanks to the girl’s dad who noticed the strange man near his daughter. Guerard tried to bolt, but the father gave chase, catching him outside the Tecumseh Road East store.

The store’s security guard noticed an altercation, but had no idea what it was about. He broke up what he thought was a fight. Guerard fled again.

After a quick explanation by the father, the security guard and father both started looking for Guerard. They spotted him crouched down on ground, smashing his cellphone on the pavement.

The two men chased Guerard across Tecumseh Road to the parking lot of Dollar Tree where they held him until police arrived. They collected the shattered remains of the cellphone which was later analyzed by police.

Court heard Guerard had “indiscriminate” taste when it came to upskirt photos — any female of any age would suffice.

Ontario court Justice Gregory Campbell called Guerard’s conduct “distasteful, intolerable” and “potentially dangerous.” Campbell said if Guerard had been uploading any photos from his collection, he’d be further victimizing his subjects.

Guerard narrowly avoided being placed on the national sex offender registry. Assistant Crown attorney Russ Cornett had asked that Guerard be placed on the registry for 10 years. But when pressed by the judge, Cornett declined to try to prove the photos Guerard had taken of the 10-year-old girl had been taken for any other criminal purpose but to feed his own perversion.

Guerard has no prior criminal record. Defence lawyer Kevin Shannon said, until his arrest, Guerard had a steady girlfriend with whom he has a one-year-old child. He lives with his father in Colchester and worked at a bottling plant, riding his bike four miles each way to work.

“He is ashamed to be here,” Shannon said.

With his mother crying in the body of the court behind him, Guerard addressed the judge. “I just want to say I’m sorry. I want the victims to know I’m sorry. It will never happen again on my account.”

Guerard hopes to pursue a career in automotive robotics. The judge ordered that, during his probation, Guerard can’t use a computer other than for work. “No surfing the web,” Campbell said.

Guerard was fined $150 which will go into a fund to compensate victims of crime.

The University of Windsor’s master’s program in sport management has again been ranked among the top 25 in the world, according to SportBusiness International.

The magazine has highlighted Windsor in each of the three years it has conducted an annual survey of post-graduate programs in sport management. The rankings this year are based on a survey of 500 alumni of such programs around the globe.

Windsor’s program is offered through the department of kinesiology. Graduates find careers with professional sports teams, governing bodies for sports, government departments responsible for recreation, culture and tourism, and firms that make sports equipment and apparel.

SportBusiness International will name the top five programs in April. Last year, the magazine listed Ohio University’s Master of Sports Administration program the best of its kind in the world.

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An elementary teacher arrested 2½ years ago for taking breaks from his students by snorting cocaine might finally have his teaching licence revoked.

Sean Lee Gibson, a former Grade 4 teacher at St. Gabriel Catholic school, will have a disciplinary hearing before the Ontario College of Teachers next month. The college is alleging professional misconduct and incompetence.

Gibson was arrested in October 2012, after police were tipped off about his cocaine habit. Officers watched Gibson make frequent trips during the day to a particular, single washroom within the school. On two days, police cleaned the washroom before Gibson entered several times, and swabbed surfaces after he left. They found cocaine residue on the countertop.

Police followed him home at lunchtime and arrested him as he exited his apartment. In his pocket was a plastic baggie containing 0.1 grams of cocaine.

Gibson was on probation at the time for making threats to his ex-spouse.

The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board fired Gibson a month later. He had been a teacher with the board for 10 years.

Gibson was convicted in November 2013 of drug possession and sentenced to 45 days on house arrest.

If Gibson is found guilty of professional misconduct or found to be incompetent, the college could revoke his teaching certificate. Gibson’s certificate has been suspended for non-payment of fees.

An autopsy will be conducted on a driver involved in a crash on Arner Townline Thursday morning.

Paul Bolton, 66, of Amherstburg was killed in a collision with a transport truck on the stretch of road between Kingsville Concession roads 2 and 3. Bolton was northbound in a silver Chevy Cobalt about 7 a.m. when he collided with an on-coming transport truck. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

“The coroner has ordered an autopsy,” said OPP Sgt. Rick Tonial. “We are still investigating the crash.”

The pavement on the stretch of road, also known as County Road 23, was clear and dry at the time of the crash. Other sections of the road, not protected from the wind, were snow covered.

The crash nearly sent the Cobalt into one of the deep ditches that flank Arner Townline. Morning commuters on the north-south road that divides Kingsville and Essex were detoured. The road was closed five hours until about noon Thursday while investigators were on the scene.

Ontario Provincial Police investigate a fatal head-on crash on the Arner Townline in Kingsville, ON. on Thursday, Feb 19, 2015. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)

An investigator with the Ontario Provincial Police probes the scene of a fatal crash on Arner Townline in Kingsville Feb. 19, 2015. (DAN JANISSE/The Windsor Star)

Keimonty Grayer is a thief who breaks into homes while people are sleeping.

On Sept. 10, she upped her game, robbing a woman at a bank machine. The fact the gun she used was fake and Grayer got no cash makes no difference under the law; Grayer is facing a minimum of four years behind bars.

Grayer, 28, pleaded guilty Monday to 11 crimes, most committed during a five-month period last year. The Crown is seeking a total sentence of six years, minus time served.

Windsor police are on the hunt for a pistol-packing woman, Keimonty Grayer, 28. who unsuccessfully tried to rob a woman outside of an ATM. (Courtesy of The Windsor Police)

“This was very much a crime spree,” assistant Crown attorney Tim Kavanagh told the judge who will sentence Grayer later this week. Ontario court Justice Sharman Bondy noted Grayer has been handed light sentences for past crimes and is getting more brazen.

In May, Grayer was caught on video surveillance using a Sears credit card stolen from a home on Devonshire Road. Within a couple hours, she rang up $3,200 in purchases.

In June, Grayer was cashing cheques stolen from a woman’s car. When Grayer was arrested, police found one of the victim’s uncashed cheques and other pieces of mail in Grayer’s backpack.

In August, a man awoke to find Grayer standing in the bedroom of his Ouellette Avenue apartment. He later discovered his wallet and cellphone missing.

That same month, Grayer was caught in a student housing building on Peter Street trying to open a drawer that contained petty cash. When arrested, Grayer was carrying a white plastic bag containing documents from a home on Peter Street that had been burglarized earlier. Stolen were two laptop computers and two sets of headphones.

A few days later Grayer was caught in the staff office of the Hampton Inn on Huron Church Road. A review of the security video showed Grayer had removed a projector and hid it elsewhere in the hotel.

Two days after that, Grayer was caught using a credit card stolen that same morning. A woman awoke on Arthur Road to find her purse missing. When she called to cancel her Visa card, she learned it had been used at an Esso station and at a Tim Hortons. Surveillance from the gas station showed Grayer using the card,

The next day, Grayer was seen on home security video breaking into a home on Labadie Road at night. She stole a Coach purse, sweatshirt and shoes. Grayer’s identity as the thief was further confirmed when she left behind her own purse containing identification in the back yard.

The ATM robbery at took place three days later. A woman used the bank machine at the Royal Bank branch on Tecumseh Road East around 11:20 p.m. Grayer was sitting on the floor inside the ATM area. As the woman finished withdrawing cash, Grayer held a handgun to the woman’s head. Grayer fled empty-handed when the woman’s boyfriend noticed the commotion from where he was waiting in his car.

That incident, too, was caught on video.

Grayer also pleaded guilty to assault for spitting on a jail guard in November.

Defence lawyer Christina Sweet said Grayer suffers from mental illness which has only been treated now that she is behind bars.

“Now that she’s on medication, she’s so much better than when I first started dealing with her,” Sweet told the judge.

Sweet said Grayer had been using illegal drugs to self-medicate. She started drinking at age 14, graduated to pot, then crack, crystal meth and opiates. She would steal to pay for drugs.

Sweet asked the judge to consider these factors and sentence Grayer to four years in a federal penitentiary, minus the time she has already spent behind bars awaiting sentencing.

Sweet also asked Bondy to waive $2,100 in what are normally automatic fines for the crimes she committed.

The judge said she wants to hear further submissions on sentencing Friday.

ssacheli@windsorstar.com

A Windsor man who had a loaded Kel-Tec 9-mm handgun in his pickup truck was sentenced Wednesday to 20 months in jail.

Gary Vanasse, 44, pleaded guilty to the possession of the prohibited firearm but offered no explanation about what he was doing with it. His guilty plea came on the day his trial was set to begin last year.

Police responding to a call at Vanasse’s King Street home on July 15, 2012, were tipped off about him having a gun. They found the semi-automatic pistol in the front-seat console of his pickup truck that was parked on the front lawn.

Vanasse, at his sentencing hearing, was “rather cryptic” about why he had the gun, Superior Court Justice Gregory Verbeem said Wednesday. Vanasse would only say he had been “put in a bad position by people he was trying to help,” Verbeem said.

Vanasse’s lawyer had argued for a light sentence of six months in jail or house arrest. There was no evidence that Vanasse was involved in any criminal activity and the gun posed no threat, Frank Miller argued.

Miller said Vanasse’s possession of the weapon was more of a “regulatory offence” than a “true crime.”

But assistant Crown attorney Roger Dietrich, arguing for a three-year prison sentence, said illegal firearms pose a danger to the public, especially loaded ones.

The judge agreed. “A loaded gun always poses an immediate danger,” Verbeem said. “To be blunt, he had no business possessing this prohibited firearm ever.”

Vanasse spent almost three months in jail following his arrest. Given the usual enhanced credit for time served, Vanasse was sentenced to an additional 16 months in jail.

Vanasse had tears in his eyes as he turned to his wife in court and mouthed the words, “I love you” before being led away by a police officer.

Miller said Vanasse’s sentence could have been worse. “He was looking down the barrel at three years and he got 16 months.”

Vanasse has a criminal record that includes convictions for possessing stolen property, criminal harassment, uttering threats and drunk driving, but he hasn’t been convicted of any crime in 15 years.

After his release, Vanasse will be on probation for two years. Vanasse will be the subject of a lifetime firearm prohibition and a weapons prohibition for 10 years. He must also provide a blood sample for the national DNA databank police use to solve crime.

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