Richard Lesann will get another chance to gain his freedom next month.
Last fall, a Yorkton Court of Queen’s Bench justice found Lesann not criminally responsible for killing Tammy Kulaway in Springside in 2011. The justice ruled the man was suffering from a mental disorder due to alcoholism-related psychosis at the time of Kulaway’s death.
Almost immediately after the ruling, Lesann was moved into Donaldson House, a group home on the campus of the Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford. In January, the Saskatchewan Review Board held a hearing and granted Lesann unsupervised outings in the community. The panel ruled he was doing well enough to be out on his own based on evidence presented by Lesann’s treatment team that he was off anti-psychotic drugs and showed no signs of mental illness.
At another hearing in April, he had taken a step back.
“The Review Board observed during this hearing that Richard became angry and defensive,” the public report stated. “He used rationalization and compartmentalization in discussing the tragic circumstances of the offence. The Board believed during this hearing Richard demonstrated very poor insight into his real risk of relapse into alcoholism and a poor awareness of the circumstances that will trigger it.”
Members of the treatment team testified that Lesann was not fully engaging in his addictions program and posed a significant threat to the public.
They recommended gradual rather than rapid re-integration into the community.
“The Review Board was disappointed to hear Richard has not fully engage with addictions programming,” the report stated. “Until there is evidence that Richard is fully participating in addictions programming and acquires greater insight into his illness and the triggers for relapse, the Board believes that he will continue to be a significant threat to the public and will be required to be detained at Saskatchewan hospital residing in Donaldson House.”
