Lawyer wants mother’s conviction in son’s death thrown out over delay
The 38 months it took the prosecution to convict Tamara Lovett of criminal negligence in her son’s death was excessive and should result in the case being tossed, her lawyer said Tuesday.
Defence counsel Alain Hepner said the time period exceeded guidelines established by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Jordan decision and should result in a stay being entered against Lovett.
Hepner said the period between Lovett being charged in November 2013 and her conviction last January — by Judge Kristine Eidsvik — was excessive and amounted to a breach of the Calgary woman’s charter right to be tried within a reasonable period of time.
In the Jordan decision, released in July 2016, the Supreme Court said cases that take longer than 30 months to be completed from the time a person is charged will be presumed to be a violation of an individual’s charter rights.
But Crown prosecutor Jonathan Hak said the delay attributable to the justice system, as opposed to the defence, was 32 months. He said Lovett’s trial could have been conducted in June 2016, but Hepner was unavailable, causing its start to be delayed until late November 2016.
Hak said while that was still in excess of the 30 months established in Jordan, the Lovett case was a transitional one which began before that ruling, so previous case law applied.
The prosecutor said the test for determining unreasonable delay was whether it prejudiced the accused and whether the case was a serious one.
Hak said because Lovett was able to conduct her defence without any problem, even testifying without struggling to remember details, there was no prejudice in the case.
But Eidsvik expressed frustration that cases continue to take too long.
“We can’t seem to have reasonably timed trials in Canada,” she said, adding other nations don’t seem to have those same difficulties.
“Why is it in other jurisdictions around the world, they can do it?” Eidsvik asked.
Hak suggested it was a resource issue that continues to plague the system.
“We suffer under resource issues that affect our ability to schedule trials,” he said.
Lovett, 48, was convicted in January of criminal negligence causing death in connection with the March 2013 death of her son Ryan.
Ryan Lovett, 7, died March 2, 2013, after his mom continued to treat the gravely ill boy with natural remedies instead of getting him professional medical care, which would have saved his life. In convicting her, Eidsvik found Lovett gambled with the boy’s life by sticking to her belief system.
At her September sentencing hearing, Lovett said she no longer adheres to the belief system that led her to treat the dying boy with oil of oregano and dandelion tea.
A teary Lovett said she now knows what she was doing in treating her son was wrong.
“Every day, I punish myself. I think of Ryan and blame myself for not knowing better,” Lovett said, following Crown and defence sentencing submissions.
“At the time, I believed I was doing the best for my children,” said Lovett, who also has an older son who was not under her care. “I hope others learn from my ignorance.”
Eidsvik will rule on the stay application on Nov. 17. If she denies the application, she said, she will likely proceed to sentencing Lovett that day.
Hak is seeking a sentence of four to five years, while Hepner has argued for a one-year jail term followed by probation.
Lovett remains at liberty pending her next court appearance.