Guilty plea leads to jail sentence for mischief and assault
By Delon Shurtz on April 17, 2021.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com
A 36-year-old man whose constant intoxication repeatedly lands him in hot water with the law, has received a jail sentence for several criminal offences last year and the year before.
Kesley Wolf Child was sentenced to four months in jail after he pleaded guilty this week in Lethbridge provincial court to charges of causing a disturbance, mischief causing damage, and multiple counts of assault.
On Oct. 8, 2019 Wolf Child was causing a disturbance at the Lethbridge Public Library downtown where he was being belligerent and threatening employees. Police arrested the drunken man, and he was placed in a police vehicle, but he continued to act out by banging his head against the inside of the vehicle and threatening to beat up the police officer.
Four months later, police were called to the Movie Mill where three intoxicated men were being rough with staff and causing a disturbance during a childrens’ movie.
As the men were being escorted out of the theatre by an employee, Wolf Child elbowed the young man in the chest and repeatedly pushed him.
Then a week later, on Feb. 26, 2020, the Diversion Outreach Team, which assists the city’s vulnerable citizens, was called to the Bank of Montreal downtown where Wolf Child was causing problems. Wolf Child slapped one of the members of the DOT in the face, and spit at him. Fortunately, explained Crown Prosecutor Clayton Giles, it was a dry spit and the DOT member was not struck by anything.
“Mr. Wolf Child was literally spitting mad,” Giles told court.
On another occasion Wolf Child was at a gas station and filling a cup with boiling water when an employee asked him to leave. Wolf Child complied, but only after throwing the hot water into the employee’s face, causing first-degree burns. Wolf Child was arrested shortly after, during which he wanted to fight the police officer.
On July 21 Wolf Child was “pestering” a man sitting in his truck that was parked downtown. The man told Wolf Child to leave, which he did, but then he returned, pounded on the truck’s windows and demanded a fight. The man got out of his truck and Wolf Child punched him in the face, and the two men struggled. The owner of the truck ultimately got the better of Wolf Child, who punched the man’s truck before leaving, causing about $250 damage.
Wolf Child’s last offence to which he pleaded guilty was on Oct. 11, 2020 after he was asked by a security officer parked near a restaurant to leave the property. Wolf Child was holding a can of chili and threw it at the officer’s vehicle, smashing the driver’s side window and showering the officer with glass.
Giles told court Wolf Child has a criminal record which “goes on for pages,” and is the result of his poor behaviour when he is drunk. He said bail conditions that prohibit Wolf Child from consuming alcohol are ineffective, and previous counseling and treatment have been unsuccessful, as well.
Lethbridge lawyer Claudia Connolly explained Wolf Child has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and suffers from severe addictions. He also has difficulty dealing with people and resources that exist to help the city’s vulnerable population because most of them will no longer take him as a client.
Connolly added there is a person who is willing to help Wolf Child and set up a treatment plan after he is released from jail.
Wolf Child was credited for the equivalent of 27 days spent in pre-trial custody, leaving him with a sentence of 93 days.
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Ridiculous behaviour – the judge should let ALL of his victims throw a can of chili at his face!!
Pages and pages of disgusting criminal behavior and he’ll be back out to continue victimizing people in a few days, then repeat as usual. This is just one of a multitude of examples that are allowed to continue.
The main concern for our mayor, council and MLA’s should be pubic safety. Yet despite thousands of phone calls, letters, and emails to them regarding this type of repeat crime, they bury their heads on the matter.
And those are only a few of the incidents this person was involved in, uttering threats, trespassing while LPS called but would not do anything, because the Crown would release him back on the streets.
We have to stop pampering these people who run around threatening the citizens of the city and the Crown is part of the problem! Ottawa is a big part of the problem . . . telling the Crown and judges to avoid jail sentences if possible, because the First Nations are over represented in jails . . . maybe, just maybe we should look at who is committing the crimes that give Lethbridge the highest crime stats in Canada . . . we will soon see why they are over represented in jails!
This is a slap on the wrist for this chronic offender/bully that will go to jail, work out in the gym provided and come back out to continue this behaviour!
This is not a deterrent and the current penal system is not a deterrent! To many bleeding hearts out there that prevent true rehabilitation in jails . . . remember the days when they had to work for their keep . . . remember the camp out by Beaver Mines where they had to cut wood?
There are no deterrents and this individual and several others constantly are allowed to get out of jail and continue their deviant behaviours on our streets . . . he was allowed to continue his reign for a year, gaining more charges as the year progressed and he finally made it to court . . . what does that say about our judicial system and penal system!!!
We continue to sink into the abyss with one bad decision after another!!!
Sorry . . . I have tried to remain silent the last few months on issues in this city and relax, but this article got my blood boiling and I had to post my comment!!
This “man” is a blatant danger to society and therefore should not be allowed to be free in society. It’s a no brainer, yet here we are again, and again, and again, and again.
It doesn’t help that all Canadian judges must follow Gladue law. Gladue law states that Indigenous criminals must receive the lowest possible sentence (if any sentence at all), and Indigenous defense lawyers in Lethbridge always plead the Gladue defense.
Sadly, the use of the Gladue Principle is only a fraction of this growing problem. And to reiterate . . . there are several others running wild on our streets, uttering threats, assaulting, vandalizing, breaking and entering, etc. and many of us downtown are really getting tired of it all! Where is our protection, our justice? We don’t matter anymore it appears!
That was my bank that the idiot vandalized that is mentioned in the Lethbridge Herald article . . . ” Man described as downtown “menace” pleads to multiple charges “, who burned a rubber mat in the BMO downtown and you can still see some of the smoke damage if you look up inside the bank. These are just 2 news articles, and there are many more incidents that happen in this city daily . . . yet nothing gets done and they get a slap on the wrist, free meals, a bed, TV, gym and plan what they are going to do when they are out.
I often wonder if it is planned that downtown is destroyed so realtors can buy up all the property as local business fails from all the issues created by governments that have failed us all!
The only positive thing is that after the SCS closed down in September of 2020, we have seen a dramatic reduction of lives lost on our streets from fatal overdoses!
We have a long way to go and I am tired . . . in just 5 years are city has gone from being a city many wanted to retire in, a clean, beautiful city to one that has been rated as having the busiest drug consumption site in the world (due to manipulating figures), and a city with some of the highest crime stats in Canada, with many citizens who are afraid to come downtown.
These 2 articles say it all . . . . !
amazing indeed that a person so entirely antisocial, for ever so long, ongoing…receives just a handful of days for violent offences. if this is because jails are too over represented with first nations, perhaps we could fill them up more with white collar crooks (almost never first nations, but, you know the kind: heads of prominent accounting firms, banks, multinational ceos, certain bureaucrats and politicians and “law enforcement” individuals etc). this would provide a good service in providing much needed justice and deterrent for those abusing power, trust and ripping off people, and in filling jails with deserving non native criminals, the issue of natives being over represented would no longer be an impediment to placing chronic native offenders in jail.
of course, the real issue in this case is fasd, and the individual cannot control his impulses. chronic alcohol consumption has further affected his capacities to be social. this person would have had interventions and supports costing over a million dollars in today’s money through his life, just to age 18. the attempts to help would have come with best intentions. however, fasd, though a spectrum, is difficult to impossible to ameliorate.
my point is that it is cruel to significantly affected individuals and dangerous and upsetting to society to turn these people to the streets unattended – very few would treat dogs or cats as callously (although we still have too many of those idiots). people that will require life long compassionate supports are well known before they turn 18. it would cost money to provide ongoing interventions and supports for adults that cannot be socially reasonable. however, it would be more humane to do as much; it would also, in the long run, be cheaper, and better for all.