A former care home worker has been found guilty of assault of and administering a noxious substance to a woman under her care.
Ashley Marie Johnson was found guilty of two counts of assault, and one count of administering a noxious substance (hand sanitizer) with intent to aggrieve or annoy.
However, Johnson was found not guilty of five other counts, including the most serious count of administering a noxious substance to cause bodily harm.
The decision came in a written ruling from Judge R.D. Maher in Queen's Bench Court Wednesday. Johnson was in court Wednesday as the decision was read.
The case returns to Queen's Bench court June 17 at 10 a.m. for sentencing. A pre-sentence report is to be prepared in the meantime.
The charges stem from alleged incidents on March 26, 2011 in North Battleford at a group home run by Battlefords Residential Services, Inc. The victim in the case was Sylene Piatt, an intellectually-disabled woman who lived at the home.
The charges against Johnson involve three separate alleged incidents on that date. One was an incident in which Johnson was accused of squirting lemon juice into Piatt's eyes. A second allegation was that the accused applied hand sanitizer to the eyes and facial area of Piatt. The third allegation was that Johnson placed peppercorns in Sylene's mouth and attempted to have her chew them.
In his ruling Maher noted the evidence given by Johnson differed widely from Crown witnesses as to what transpired, putting the credibility of the witnesses at issue. In her testimony, Johnson denied pouring lemon juice on Piatt, and also denied putting peppercorns in Piatt's mouth, but acknowledged putting hand sanitizer on Piatt's hands as a way to prevent Piatt from putting her hands into her mouth.
In his ruling, Maher found Johnson's evidence with respect to the lemon juice, peppercorn and hand sanitizer incidents "not believable," and accepted the Crown witness testimony.
Maher went on to make his ruling on whether the Crown had proven the elements of the offences beyond a reasonable doubt.
With respect to the lemon juice incident, Maher ruled the Crown had proven the lemon juice was poured on the victim's face, but there was no evidence that the lemon juice got into her eyes. As a result, Maher found the accused not guilty of administering a noxious substance, however the judge was satisfied the accused did pour lemon juice onto Piatt's face and found Johnson guilty of common assault.
With respect to the hand sanitizer incident, Maher found the accused did apply hand sanitizer to Piatt's eyes and face, but said the Crown has "failed to satisfy me that the accused intended to cause bodily harm to Sylene as set out in count two of the indictment." Accordingly, Johnson was found not guilty on count two. However, Maher was satisfied the application of hand sanitizer was "intended to aggrieve or annoy Sylene" and found Johnson guilty on that count.
On the peppercorn charge, Maher ruled there was no evidence that peppercorns are a noxious or potentially caustic substance as required for a conviction, so Johnson was found not guilty on counts two and three. However, Maher did rule the accused put peppercorns in Piatt's mouth and attempted to have her chew them, which was an assault under count one.
Defence lawyer Jay Watson told reporters he would have to review the decision. As for an appeal "it's too early to tell and of course we don't know what the sentence is going to be, and the appeal period doesn't start to run until the sentencing is complete so we've got time to review it."
After court adjourned, Piatt's parents Roger and Collene Piatt met reporters and admitted to having mixed emotions about the ruling in the Johnson case.
"I have mixed feelings, I guess," said Roger. "She wasn't found guilty of everything, she was just found guilty basically of the assaults."
Roger said they were looking forward to the sentencing and "to try and get this all behind us."
He called the whole situation involving his daughter "a difficult time which shook some of our beliefs in people."
"But we always come back to the idea that it's not an organization, it's an individual who did this," Roger said.
As for his daughter, Roger said "her demeanor has improved dramatically since this person is no longer working there, so we were wondering if this was something that has affected her for quite some time." He said Sylene is "able to express emotion and show that she is happy or sad, and definitely seems happier now."
