Man gets jail time for removing ankle monitor

A Brandon man who used wire cutters to remove his ankle monitor while out on bail was sentenced to four months behind bars on Thursday.

“To hear about people removing them and damaging them and making them inoperable, that’s concerning,” Judge Donovan Dvorak said in Brandon provincial court.

“In order to ensure confidence in that system and to ensure people don’t do what you’ve done, I think the sentence has to be one that’s deterrent and denunciatory,” he said.

Devon Lessard, 32, pleaded guilty to a single count of resisting arrest and three counts of breaching his release order.

In June, Lessard applied for bail after he was charged with assault, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, assault causing bodily harm and uttering threats. His bail plan included a 24-hour curfew and that he wear an ankle monitor.

Judge John Combs granted his release but said without the ankle monitor to ensure that he is at his mother’s residence, there would have been a different outcome.

Crown attorney Ron Toews read the facts that brought Lessard back into custody.

On July 15, officers with the Brandon Police Service were sent to an address on Willowdale Crescent at about 5 a.m. after receiving a report that Lessard’s ankle monitor had been tampered with.

When police arrived, Lessard’s mother told police that Lessard had been sitting on the porch with friends the evening before and that she checked on him frequently, so he must have left within the last hour.

“On the porch of the residence was a pair of wire cutters, along with his release order paperwork lying on the ground,” Toews said.

Police did an “extensive” search but could not find Lessard. At around 10:30 p.m., police went back to the address, and learned that he had not been home all day.

BPS phoned the Manitoba Offender Monitoring Program, and they elicited an alarm sound on the device, but police could not find it. They were also unable to get an accurate GPS tracking location.

Police issued a warrant for Lessard’s arrest.

On July 19, at around 1:18 a.m., police saw Lessard riding a bicycle in the 1000 block of Brandon Avenue.

“Police activated emergency equipment, rolled down their window, and said, ‘Devon Lessard, you are under arrest.’ Devon looked at police and began to ride away on the bicycle. Devon evaded police and was able to get away,” Toews said.

Police searched the area and around 40 minutes later went to an address where Lessard had been located before.

When officers knocked on the door, a woman answered, and when they asked if Lessard was there, she said no but nodded her head yes. Police found him hiding in the residence, Toews said.

Lessard was intoxicated and admitted to smoking crack cocaine about 10 minutes prior, Toews said.

“These electronic monitoring program devices are put into place to benefit accused offenders and if they’re going to be abused in this way, it brings the entire program into some level of disrepute,” Toews said.

He said the amount of police resources used while trying to find Lessard is also an aggravating factor.

The lawyers presented a joint recommendation of 120 days for all the charges.

Defence lawyer Tony Kavanagh said his client has a difficult relationship with his mother. He said she has an alcohol addiction, and when she drinks, the two have a difficult time.

“It doesn’t excuse what happened, but it explains it. What he ought to have done, obviously, is contact me or another lawyer to try to arrange a variation,” Kavanagh said.

He said the guilty pleas are a mitigating factor, since more resources won’t be used by taking the matter to trial.

Kavanagh said Lessard has struggled with an addiction to drugs and alcohol, and while he has completed some programming, after a while “coping becomes too difficult.”

Dvorak said by removing the device, it impacts the way the public views the reliability of the system.

He said there has been discussion about people removing their ankle monitors, and people think that means the monitors aren’t doing their job.

“I had looked at that as an indication of the system working, in the sense that people weren’t getting away with it. If they were breaching the order of the court while using that device, they’re actually getting caught,” he said.

He went along with the lawyer’s joint recommendation but said he thinks people who commit this sort of breach should be looking at higher sentences.

Lessard remains in custody for his outstanding charges, and his matter will appear next in January 2026.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com