Pleas on hold

Fourteen drug trafficking defendants in an RCMP operation that resulted in 21 arrests and more than 80 charges will have another month to make pleas.

In provincial court Monday, various defence attorneys representing the alleged dealers cited only recently having received full disclosure from the Crown as the reason for adjourning the cases. Justin Adams, Jude Becker, Byron Berens, Michael Cross, Tlell Eipert, Jillian Fedun, Jeremy Machusek, Thomas Stevenson and Zachary Villeneuve were rescheduled to appear before the judge on May 27. Four others, Mary Jane Baetz, Andrew Dobko, Adam Geysen and Francis Bellegarde were held over to early June.

A Cote First Nation man will do 90 days in prison for assaulting a police officer while in custody. Richard Sumner was arrested last weekend after RCMP received a complaint of an intoxicated man in a residence on the reserve. When officers investigated they found the 49-year-old was in breach of a recognizance that required he abstain from alcohol. While in custody at the detachment he kicked an officer who was attempting to search him. Because of a previous, although dated, record of assault, Crown and defence recommended incarceration. Defence requested he be allowed to serve the term intermittently because of his employment and role as sole provider for his family.

A 33-year-old Yorkton man was sentenced Monday to one-year in prison for assault. Darwin Whitehawk was found to be in breach of a curfew and no alcohol order related to another assault when he was arrested April 26 at the City Limits Inn after RCMP received complaints of a fight. In court April 29, Whitehawk reversed his not guilty plea on the previous assault and pleaded guilty to new charges. Judge Patrick Koskie said he felt the joint submission for incarceration was reasonable and issued a DNA order and 10-year firearms prohibition.