Sentencing postponed for abusive couple
Wife’s developmentally disabled sister died as result of treatment
A sentencing hearing has been postponed for several weeks for two people who admitted they put a developmentally disabled relative through weeks of severe abuse, isolation and humiliation leading up to her death in 2009.
Strathcona County couple Michael and Denise Scriven each pleaded guilty March 1 to failing to provide the necessaries of life to 48-year-old Betty Anne Gagnon, Denise’s sister. The sentencing hearing was to have been held Thursday, and no future court date has been specified.
The postponement enables the Scrivens to meet with psychiatrists, who will file presentence reports to the court. Those reports were originally expected to be ready, but now won’t be complete for at least several weeks.
In April, defence lawyers for the couple asked for the adjournment so further psychiatric assessments could be completed. Court heard that one such assessment, already completed, states the Scrivens “suffered from significant mental health issues at the time of the offence.”
That report recommended a second psychiatrist talk to the Scrivens before sentencing.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sterling Sanderman agreed to the adjournment in April, but indicated there will be no further delays, saying: “This has to be dealt with by the end of June.”
In March, it took Crown prosecutor Scott Niblock nearly 30 minutes to read a report about the abuse the Scrivens put Gagnon through. The couple held hands in the prisoners’ box as they listened.
Court heard that Gagnon was locked up in various “jail cells” on the Scrivens’ rural property, including the garage, basement, a chain-link fence enclosure for dogs and a derelict school bus without water or heat. Gagnon spent her last night alive on the bus Nov. 19, 2009, and died the next day.
After Gagnon suffered a seizure and incontinence, Denise Scriven dragged her from the bus while attempting CPR. She called for her husband’s help. Michael was videotaping damage to the house he believed Gagnon was responsible for. Police seized that videotape.
“I need you,” Gagnon pleaded on the video while the Scrivens decided what to do. Both of them had smoked crack cocaine that day.
They decided to put her in their truck. Denise drove her younger sister to a local gas station for help. Paramedics declared Gagnon dead while she was still in the truck in the parking lot. The five-foottwo woman weighed only 65 pounds when she died.