Accused in assault denied bail despite claimed alibi

A man accused of using a rope to choke another man until he nearly lost consciousness during a three-on-one assault was denied bail in Brandon provincial court on Thursday.

Dale Chartrand is charged with mischief, assault and assault with a weapon. The charges have not been proven in court.

Chartrand’s lawyer denied the allegations and said his client claims he was at a monitored group home at the time of the assault.

The Crown opposed Chartrand’s release, citing public safety concerns and his willingness to abide by court-ordered conditions.

Easton Lacey, an articling student with the Crown, detailed the allegations.

On March 12, Brandon police were sent to Sixth Street after emergency medical services requested assistance with a 30-year-old man who had been assaulted.

Police arrived and saw a man, with visible injuries, being escorted to an ambulance.

“(He) had multiple injuries, including lacerations to his face and ligature marks around his neck. His clothing had multiple blood stains,” Lacey said.

Once at the hospital, the man gave a statement to police and said the assault happened at his residence on Rosser Avenue. He identified three suspects — one of them being Chartrand.

He told police three men kicked down his bedroom door and assaulted him, the Crown said.

“He said he was struck by a crowbar multiple times by one of the suspects,” Lacey said, adding that he had been struck in the face and left arm.

“(He) indicated that a rope had been tied around his neck by Chartrand, and he was choked until nearly unconscious,” she said.

The complainant was eventually able to escape by pulling a fire alarm, which caused the suspects to run away, court heard.

When police went to the complainant’s residence, they saw that the door had been removed from its hinges and there were multiple blood stains in the bedroom. Police issued a warrant for Chartrand’s arrest.

Two days later, police found Chartrand on 10th Street and arrested him.

Lacey brought the court’s attention to Chartrand’s criminal record, which she said “speaks for itself,” with convictions for assault and assaulting a peace officer, along with convictions for breaching court orders.

She said while the Crown doesn’t yet know the full extent of the complainant’s injuries, the assault caused a “significant amount of damage and injury.”

The marks on his neck and lacerations on his face support the allegations, she said.

“There are some unknowns with how these people are exactly known to each other, but the fact that the complainant names Mr. Chartrand indicates to us that they do know each other,” Lacey said.

“From our perspective, he is a risk to the community.”

The number of convictions for breaching court orders has shown that Chartrand doesn’t have regard for conditions that are imposed on him, Lacey said.

“We don’t have confidence that he’ll abide by conditions going forward,” the Crown said.

Defence lawyer Andrew Synyshyn said there’s nothing that connects Chartrand to the complainant and pointed out that Chartrand was arrested days later.

Synyshyn said Chartrand has “no idea” who the complainant is and maintains that he was at his residence from March 11 to March 14. He lives in a group home, which staff monitor 24-7. He said they would be able to tell police whether Chartrand was there at the time of the allegations.

“He doesn’t know why he’s being accused of this,” he said.

“There’s no doubt that something happened at that residence on that day. There’s no disputing that allegation, but either there’s someone else named similarly to Dale Chartrand or another Dale Chartrand out there,” he said.

He added that there was no indication of the suspect’s age, weight, size or ethnicity.

Synyshyn proposed a bail plan that would have Chartrand living at the same residence and not have contact with the complainant or either of the co-accused.

Given the presumption of innocence and the potential defence through an alibi, it wouldn’t be against the public’s interest or the administration of justice for the court to grant Chartrand’s release, he said.

Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said the seriousness of the allegations is compounded by Chartrand’s “terrible” and related criminal record, which she described as littered with violence.

She said the proposed bail plan didn’t address the issues of his willingness to follow court orders and public safety.

Chartrand’s matter will appear on an administrative docket in April.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com