Hahn free until sentence hearing
A Saskatoon man found guilty of harassing a judge said he will be appealing the verdict.
After deliberating until past sundown, a jury found Christopher Richard Hahn, who had represented himself in court, guilty of criminal harassment in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench Friday.
The charge was related to Hahn’s harassment of Justice Shawn Smith between October 2009 and April 2012 after Smith issued a family court ruling Hahn didn’t like.
After the guilty verdict, Crown prosecutor William Burge submitted to Justice Ralph Ottenbreit that it might be justified to revoke Hahn’s bail, keeping him in custody until sentencing. Burge presented several emails sent from Hahn’s account as examples of his continued campaign against the justice system. Hahn said he did not recognize the emails and that several people had access to his account.
Ottenbreit allowed Hahn to stay out on bail, but strengthened the language of the conditions such that any attempt, in any medium, to contact the court or anyone involved in the proceedings would be considered a violation. Hahn also had to provide an address and phone number for where he would be staying. Sentencing was scheduled for July 28.
Hahn said afterward that he would be appealing the verdict but declined to say on what grounds. When asked if he was disappointed in being found guilty, he shrugged.
“That ’ s life, man. I’ve got my health. Life could always be a lot worse,” Hahn said.
This was the second time Hahn was tried for the same charge. The first ended in a mistrial last May after Hahn showed the jury a poster showing himself standing in front of a coffin.
There were nine recorded incidents between Oct. 2009 and April 2012 in which Hahn took steps Smith found disconcerting.
Hahn put up four different posters with accusations about Smith near the family law and Queen’s Bench courts in downtown Saskatoon, Ottenbreit recalled in his instructions to the jury Friday morning.
Hahn also called Smith a “scumbag” in a document he submitted to family court.
In June 2011, Hahn confronted Smith in an alley between the courthouses as the judge was heading to lunch. Smith said Hahn tapped him on the shoulder, and when he turned around, Hahn snapped his picture. Hahn then approached the judge inside a restaurant, where he said his son was “f---ed up” because of the judge’s rulings, and that he would “settle with him, legally.”
The jury watched video footage of Hahn showing up briefly at the family court office when he had no case before the court. Hahn said he was “looking for a buddy,” which Smith interpreted to mean him, Ottenbreit said while reviewing the evidence.
Smith ignored the first few incidents, but became increasingly alarmed and felt hunted after the alleyway encounter, Burge has said.
Hahn did not deny putting the posters up, but disputed whether they constituted harassment.
“I guess we’ve lost freedom of speech in this country,” he said after the trial. He maintained that what he had done was “right and fair.”