Judge urges man to maintain medication

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on August 13, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

A 37-year-old man who assaulted three people on separate occasions earlier this year has been advised to stay on his medication if he wants to avoid future problems.

After Cody Gregory Fleming was sentenced Friday in Lethbridge provincial court to one month in jail for the assaults, Judge John Maher urged him to take his medication for schizophrenia.

“Mr. Fleming, you may not want to take your medication, but you gotta take it or you’re going to get yourself into trouble,” Maher said.

He said it’s unfortunate sometimes that people who suffer from mental health issues don’t feel pain associated with their illness like people who suffer from physical ailments, which would help remind them to take their medications.

Fleming pleaded guilty Friday to three counts of assault, the first of which occurred Jan. 19 at the Alpha House homeless shelter. A resident of the shelter was reading a book when Fleming approached and began hitting him.

On May 18 Fleming was arrested again after causing a disturbance at the Park Place Shopping Centre downtown. Security responded to the disturbance and was accosted by Fleming.

“Mr. Fleming responded to security by becoming aggressive, yelling at them saying, ‘I own this mall, call the cops.’ “

As a security officer escorted Fleming from the mall he turned around and tried to grab the officer by the throat, then pushed him into a pillar before striking the officer in the face with an open backhand.

The officer and other security personnel managed to take Fleming to the ground and hold him until police arrived and arrested him.

A month later police received a call that Fleming was fighting with security personnel in Galt Gardens downtown. The altercation began while security was escorting Fleming from the park for causing a disturbance, at which time he lunged at the security officer, shoved him then swung at him with his fist, but missed.

He was ultimately taken to the ground by police and security, then arrested.

Fleming, whose criminal record includes convictions earlier this year for criminal harassment, assault and resisting a peace officer, does not always do well even when he is taking his medication, Lethbridge lawyer Claudia Connolly told court.

“There’s times he does really well, and there’s times he doesn’t,” Connolly said. “Sometimes he has difficulty taking his medication, sometimes his medication doesn’t really work for him the way they’d like it to.”

Although sentenced to one month in jail, Fleming was given full credit for time he already spent in custody on these charges, effectively completing his sentence. However, he faces additional charges of assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and threats to cause death or bodily harm, on which he returns to court Tuesday.

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