Lawyer appears in court on behalf of woman accused of threatening MLAs
The first court appearance of a Kelowna woman charged with threatening to kill or hurt outgoing Premier Christy Clark and Kelowna-Mission MLA Steve Thomson turned out to be a non-appearance on Friday.
“She’s not here because she doesn’t have to be here,” criminal defence lawyer Wade Jenson, who is representing Pavla Janeckova, said outside the courtroom.
“A client doesn’t have to appear on summary matters. On such matters, counsel can appear on a client’s behalf. So here I am.”
Jenson did confirm that Janeckova is charged with two counts of uttering threats.
“But, we’ll have to leave it at that for now,” he said. However, it wasn’t left at that. A reporter asked a double-barrelled question: Have you met with your client? And, does she intend to plead guilty or not guilty.
“Yes, I have met with my client,” the lawyer responded.
“And, I can’t comment” on the question of Janeckova’s intention to plead either guilty or not guilty.
“I look forward to the day I can discuss it in more detail,” he summed up.
And with that, the impromptu interview on the front steps of Kelowna Law Courts was over and Jenson left.
A Google search of ‘Pavla Janeckova Kelowna’ turned up mostly media coverage of the uttering threats charges.
However, the 411 website listed a Pavla Janeckova in Kelowna along with a phone number.
I called the number and a woman answered: Hello.
However, when I asked if she was Pavla, she answered asking who I was.
When I identified who I was she said she couldn’t make out what I was saying and the call ended.
Prior to the quickie news conference on the courthouse steps, Jenson was in courtroom No. 9 before Judge Jane Cartwright.
Special Prosecutor Kris Panchet was patched into the courtroom via phone from his office in New Westminster.
Jenson immediately asked for the case to be put over until July 20 because he still needed to get some information from the local Crown prosecutor’s office and Panchet’s office.
Panchet was busy July 20, so July 25 was suggested.
Panchet was also unavailable on the 25th, so the two sides settled on July 24 at 9:30 a.m. in courtroom No. 8.
During the provincial election campaign, on April 30, Janeckova is alleged to have left recorded telephone messages at Clark’s constituency office in West Kelowna and Thomson’s constituency office in Kelowna.
Details of the recordings have not been released.
However, the official charges of uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm speak to the seriousness of the accusations.
Three days after the messages were recorded, Panchet, a lawyer in private practice in New Westminster, was appointed special prosecutor in the case.
The B.C. Prosecution Service, which generally handles such cases, wanted to call in a special prosecutor to avoid any potential for real or perceived influence in the case being that government politicians were involved.
Pechet didn’t provide any specific details about the calls, other than to say they involved an individual “upset with circumstances” and involved “a general view of how government is performing.”
His other comments were more general in nature.
“Any time somebody who is running for office, it wouldn’t have mattered who it is, but any time anybody’s threatened who is in the midst of running for office, it really should be taken seriously in a democracy,” he said.