Senior shoved into path of CTrain now paralyzed, says son
The Calgary woman who was shoved into the path of a moving CTrain is now suffering her worst nightmare, the loss of using her legs, her son said Wednesday.
Allan Hein, who was in the courtroom as Stephanie Favel was sent for a 30-day psychiatric assessment, said his mother remains in hospital.
“The biggest reason for me to be here was to be able to put a name to a face,” Hein said following Favel’s brief court appearance.
“I feel like having that visual is like the beginning steps of closure,” he said.
“And seeing her shackled up and in a jailhouse sweater provides a little bit of relief knowing that she’s in custody and escorted all over the building.”
Hein said it was “very hard, very surreal” to see Favel, the woman charged with trying to murder his mother, Rozalia Meichl, last Thursday.
Meichl, 64, was talking to a friend on the Victoria Park/Stampede LRT station platform around 2:30 p.m. when she was shoved onto the tracks as a train approached, police said.
The train’s driver was able to stop, but the fall seriously injured Meichl’s spinal cord, paralyzing her legs.
The past several days have been trying for Hein and his sister, Charmaine Newman, who was with him in the courtroom gallery.
“It’s just been a whirlwind of emotions,” Hein said. “If you asked her (Meichl), she’d say she’s doing great. She’s not. She’s lost the use of her legs permanently, she’ll be in a wheelchair forever.”
“She told me (Tuesday) that losing the use of her legs was always her worst nightmare, which I didn’t know ... she was concerned that one day she would never walk again,” he said. “She is absolutely living her worst nightmare.”
As for Favel being sent for a psychiatric assessment to determine her fitness to stand trial, Hein said he’s skeptical about a mentalhealth defence.
“It’s frustrating, for sure, but I understand that it’s all part of the process and very common in these types of situations,” he said.
“I, much like everybody else in the public ... see it as a scapegoat, trying to play the get-out-of-jail card by way of saying I’m crazy, I don’t know what’s going on.”
In court, defence counsel Adriano Iovinelli said Favel consented to being sent to the Southern Alberta Forensic Psychiatry Centre after she was seen by Dr. George Duska.
The family is trying to raise money to assist Meichl with Support Rose’s Road to Recovery at gofundme.com, and one of her grandsons has organized a Nov. 29 event at Yuk Yuk’s called Comedy Night in Support of Rozalia Meichl.
Favel returns to court Dec. 12.