Man who hit sex trade worker with ATV gets day in jail

VERNON — A British Columbia man convicted of running into a sex trade worker with an all-terrain vehicle will serve one day in jail and probation after his time already served in custody has been considered.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge handed 40-year-old Curtis Sagmoen a five-month jail sentence on Friday along with a three-year term of probation for assault causing bodily harm.

Justice Gary Weatherill also imposed more than a dozen conditions on Sagmoen’s probation, including a 10-year firearm ban and that he have no contact with sex trade workers, while limits were placed on his use of communication devices and the internet. Sagmoen was convicted of assault causing bodily harm in February during a two-day trial in Vernon. The court heard he ran into a woman while driving an ATV on Aug. 10, 2017, flipping her into the air. The woman, whose name is under a publication ban, broke her tail bone, suffered a concussion and had several other injuries.

Weatherill said the pain from the woman’s injuries continues to this day.

“She struggles with anxiety and fear. She has difficulty trusting people. She constantly looks over her shoulder,” the judge said.

The woman testified at the trial that she was going to Sagmoen’s

property on Salmon River Road that day on a quote of services.

She said Sagmoen met her on the property and asked that she follow him. Her vehicle got stuck in some sand and he took her on the ATV.

But when he didn’t pay her and they weren’t at the man’s home, she began walking and heard the ATV coming from behind her at a fast speed, court heard.

Sagmoen’s lawyer, Lisa Helps, told the court her client had a long-standing drug problem at the time and that he had another confrontation involving a different sex trade worker 17 days prior at the same site.