One year suspended sentence for unwantedly touching woman

Bike chop shop

A Medicine Hat man was given a 12-month suspended sentence for assault after touching a woman’s chest without consent.

Ronald Mills entered a guilty plea to the charge of assault Thursday at the Medicine Hat courthouse, for the March 29, 2016 incident.

According to the agreed statement of facts, he met a woman at the downtown Tim Hortons, they walked to a nearby park to talk, where he touched her chest without her wanting him to.

The original charge was of sexual assault, but Mills entered a plea to the lesser charge of assault as part of a joint submission between Crown and defence. The case was originally set to go to trial earlier this year, but Mills failed to appear in court on that date.

Coinciding with this sentence, Mills also pled guilty to four separate counts of failing to attend court, a domestic assault, shoplifting a watch and then giving police a false name, as well as a breach. He received 35 days time served for these.

Trafficking sentence

A 48-month sentence was given Sept. 21 to a Medicine Hat man who faced drug trafficking and firearm charges.

Due to time spent in custody, Taylor Weiss-Linder has 34 months left to serve. WeissLinder was arrested Feb. 18, after undercover police made multiple drug purchases from him. Police later searched his apartment where they seized drugs and cash, and a shotgun and ammunition. WeissLinder, who was 20 at the time of his arrest, was under a weapons prohibition.

Changes were made to release conditions Thursday for a local man arrested on allegations of running a bicycle chop shop, meaning he can now use a bicycle.

Until now, release conditions meant the man could not be in possession of a bike — a challenge as it’s his main form of transportation — and had led him to pleading guilty to a breach earlier this month after he was found riding a bike to the grocery store.

The man will now be allowed to use a metallic purple bike, provided by police so it can be accounted for.

Darcy Fischer, 34, has entered not-guilty pleas to the charges of trafficking stolen property, and possession for the purpose of trafficking stolen property. His trial will run on Jan. 30, 2018.

Child porn charges

A Medicine Hat man arrested on charges of possessing and accessing child pornography had a brief court appearance Thursday, with Crown requesting the usual publication ban against anything that could identify victims.

Nolan Davidson, 25, was arrested Sept. 7, by ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation unit, and has since acquired legal counsel. It was noted by police at the time of the arrest that Davidson was a former youth summer camp director Eagles Nest Ranch in the Cypress Hills — but they have no evidence to suggest any offences were committed against any children who attended camp.

His next appearance is Oct. 26, before the Case Management Office, not in front of a judge.