A St. Albert man pleaded guilty to assault this week despite not having laid a finger on the victim.
Jeffrey David Lumley, 18, of St. Albert pleaded guilty Monday in St. Albert Provincial Court.
According to a police report read in court by Crown prosecutor Keith Joyce, Lumley was involved in a complex attack on one Travis Thompson.
Thompson was driving his girlfriend home when he noticed a blue Subaru Impreza owned by Lumley outside her house. Both knew Lumley as friend of the woman’s ex-boyfriend. Lumley and that ex were in the Impreza at the time.
Suspecting trouble, the woman jumped out of Thompson’s vehicle. The ex jumped out of Lumley’s car and tried to force his way into Thompson’s vehicle. Lumley used the car to block Thompson’s escape, but Thompson got around him by driving over a curb. Lumley and the ex pursued him to another house, where the ex got out and began kicking and punching Thompson. Police arrived soon after.
This was an unusual case, said Judge Jeanne Burch; Lumley was an accessory to this assault, but did not lay any of the actual blows. She sentenced him to six months’ probation and ordered him to pay a $50 victim’s fine surcharge.
A drunk driver is out some $2,500 after blowing more than three times the legal limit.
Robert R. Langton, a 21-year-old plumber, pleaded guilty to one count of operating a motor vehicle while having a blood alcohol level over 0.08 (or 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood) Monday in St. Albert provincial court.
Reading the agreed statement of facts, Crown prosecutor Keith Joyce said that Langton was spotted backing a car into a chain-link fence on Oct. 31, 2009. Witnesses also report seeing him running a red light before parking in front of a home. When police arrived to question him, they suspected he was drunk and asked for a breath sample. They ended up taking several, the lowest of which detected 260 milligrams of alcohol in 100 milligrams of Langton’s blood, more than three times the legal limit.
Langton’s high alcohol reading was an “extremely aggravating” factor in this case, said Judge Jeanne Burch. “It’s a close call, [but] I don’t think I’ll send you to jail.” She banned him from driving for a year, giving him the option of joining the interlock ignition program after three months and fined him $2,500, victim’s fine surcharge included.
A woman who worked at a St. Albert Money-Mart has admitted in court that she took out $10,000 in loans using other people’s names.
Kimberly Renee Handley was originally supposed to face trial Monday. Instead, she pleaded guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000 before Judge Jeanne Burch.
Handley was working at the St. Albert Money Mart in May 2009, said Crown prosecutor Keith Joyce, reading the facts of the case. On two occasions that month, she altered company records to withdraw some $10,000 of payday loans under other people’s names. Video footage shows that she was alone in the store as she withdrew the money and signed the back of the cheques. She later admitted taking the money and said she planned to pay it back.
Burch accepted Handley’s plea, but held off on sentencing until the pre-sentencing report had been completed. Handley will appear again in court May 31 for sentencing.
