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Court

Considering a career in corrections? Here’s your chance to get into the industry

PENTICTON - B.C. Corrections is considering hosting additional information sessions for people interested in a career with the justice system. The Justice Institute and B.C. Corrections received a strong turnout to the orientation sessions held throughout the South Okanagan for anyone interested in becoming a corrections officers at the Okanagan Correctional Centre set to open...

Former teacher pays price for theft

PENTICTON - A former Osoyoos school teacher got a conditional sentence after embezzling $42,000 from the Osoyoos Rural Fire Protection District, the organization for which he was a volunteer secretary treasurer. Michael R. McWhinnie, born in 1946, appeared in Penticton Provincial Court Monday where he was sentenced by Judge Gregory Koturbash to a 12-month conditional...

Repeat sex offender sent back to jail

PENTICTON - A Keremeos man and repeat sex offender will spend five years in jail after pleading guilty to sexually touching a minor. Helge E. Wilson, 61, pleaded guilty to charges of sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching by a minor after a series of incidents that took place between April and May 2013....

Repeat sex offender sent back to jail

PENTICTON - A Keremeos man and repeat sex offender will spend five years in jail after pleading guilty to sexually touching a minor. Helge E. Wilson, 61, pleaded guilty to charges of sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching by a minor after a series of incidents that took place between April and May 2013....

Gaglardi sentencing to take place this December

KAMLOOPS - Dallas Stars Owner Tom Gaglardi and his company Northland Properties Corporation will be back in Kamloops Provincial Court this December for sentencing. Earlier this year, Judge Stephen Harrison found Gaglardi guilty of harmfully altering a fish habitat. The alterations were part of various renovations and landscaping projects on the Gaglardi family’s lakeside vacation...

Bobbitt hearing could extend into the new year

PENTICTON - The dangerous offender hearing for David Bobbitt may continue into the new year after a Supreme Court Justice ordered a recall on a witness whose whereabouts are unknown to the court and police. Defence lawyer Jim Pennington applied for the right to further question the witness who testified earlier in the hearing that Bobbitt...

Oregon man sent to Kamloops prison for child porn

PENTICTON -  An Oregon man has been added to the sex offender list after he was sentenced today in Penticton for possession of child pornography. Sidney B. Van Valkenburgh, 49, was arrested at the Osoyoos border on Jan. 9, 2014 while driving a commercial truck north to distribute roofing products in Osoyoos. Border officers found...

Two panhandlers get off with community service

PENTICTON - Two Penticton men charged for panhandling were each sentenced to an absolute discharge after completing community service. Jordan B. Ricketts and Erwin A. Sedlmeier were both charged with one count of soliciting a person in a vehicle after panhandling at an intersection in Penticton earlier this year. Both men completed 15 hours of...

Keremeos sex offender to be sentenced in December

PENTICTON - Sexual offender Roy Charles O’Donaghey should learn his fate this December... if he shows up, that is. O’Donaghey was scheduled to be sentenced October 8, 2014 but didn’t show. A warrant was issued for his arrest and he turned himself in to RCMP in Chilliwack a few days later. Instead of keeping him...

Unsatisfied customer ends up in court after making false allegations

KAMLOOPS – A disgruntled yacht-owner will have to pay $40,000 to the business that sold him the boat after he made false allegations about the business’s sales manager. Robert Turpin, of 100 Mile House, paid $1,160,000 to purchase a used 64-foot yacht from Ocean Alexander Marine Yacht Sales, a business based near Seattle, but when...

Gaglardi awaits sentencing, financial penalties

KAMLOOPS - The lawyer for one of the wealthiest men in B.C. says his client's financial status should not justify the maximum fine for the environmental damage he caused after renovating his family summer home and property in Savona. Tom Gaglardi was not present in Kamloops Provincial Court Friday morning to hear Crown prosecutor Digby...

Keremeos sex offender turns himself in to police

PENTICTON - There is no longer a warrant out for the arrest a Keremeos sex offender who turned himself in to police in Chilliwack, Thursday. Roy Charles O’Donaghey never showed up to his sentencing Wednesday in Penticton Provincial Court, resulting in a warrant being issued for his arrest. His court case has been scheduled for...

Penticton man keeps long-term offender status, appeal denied

PENTICTON - Wilfred Charles Baptiste will keep his criminal designation as a long-term offender after his appeal to have the designation removed was dismissed. Baptiste did not think he fit the long-term offender criteria and appealed to have the designation removed. The appeal was dismissed by Justice Wilcock in Penticton Supreme Court on Sept. 23,...

Surrey man lands himself a year in jail for drug trafficking

PENTICTON - A Surrey man found guilty of drug trafficking will spend the next year in jail. Graham V. Jordan, 50, was found guilty of drug trafficking charges laid against him after his arrest in November 2011 in Keremeos. Justice Selwyn Romilly sentenced Jordan to one year in prison on Monday in Penticton Supreme Court. Jordan...

RCMP arrest four suspects for drug trafficking and production

SOUTH OKANAGAN - Four people were arrested last week after RCMP found weapons and a significant amount of drugs during a search warrant at an Oliver residence. On October 2, the South Okanagan RCMP Regional Drug Section, Oliver RCMP Penticton Police Dog Service and South Okanagan Traffic Services executed a search warrant at a residence...

Warrant issued for arrest of alleged sex offender

PENTICTON - A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a Keremeos man who failed to attend his sentencing at the Penticton courthouse Wednesday afternoon. Roy Charles O’Donaghey faces two charges of exposing genitals to a minor, to which he previously pleaded not guilty. The charges stem from two incidents during the summer of...

Vernon man expected to plead guilty to luring, child porn charges

VERNON - A Vernon man was scheduled to enter intended guilty pleas Monday in Vernon Supreme Court on various child pornography related charges, but that won’t happen for another few weeks. David Clayton Willerth, born in 1974, faces 25 counts, including luring children under 16 over the computer, making or publishing child pornography and invitation...

Tearful testimony from cops who thought they were going to die

KELOWNA – Two RCMP constables, testifying in the Kelowna Supreme Court trial of accused Westside Road shooter Michael Ellis Thursday afternoon, relived a day they will never forget. Const. Tara Schneider was working general duty in Vernon the afternoon of July 31, 2012 when a call that police were in pursuit of a suspect who...

Convicted pedophile labelled dangerous offender, handed indeterminate federal jail sentence

KAMLOOPS – With a lengthy criminal history including five sexual offenses, most of which were against children, a Kamloops Provincial Court judge labelled a convicted pedophile as a dangerous offender and gave him an indeterminate jail sentence Thursday morning. After reviewing the extensive criminal history of David Bruce Jennings, 51, Provincial Court Judge Len Marchand...

JAIL SEX TRIAL: Judge will decide if RCMP officer’s actions were criminal

KAMLOOPS – It is up to a Kamloops Supreme Court Justice to determine if a crime was committed in the early morning hours of August 18, 2010 now that submissions from both lawyers have concluded in the trial of an RCMP watch commander. Kenneth Peter Rick Brown was charged with breach of trust after he,...

Penticton man sentenced to five years in prison for sex assault

PENTICTON - A local man was sentenced today to nearly five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges of sexual and aggravated assault. Darren MacDonald, 42, appeared in Penticton Supreme Court via video conference from Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre where he has been in custody since Aug. 11, 2013. He pleaded guilty this...

JAIL SEX TRIAL: ‘It was a very tense and uncomfortable environment:’ guard

KAMLOOPS – A former jail guard told a Kamloops Supreme Courtroom this morning his workplace was like a zoo and there was nothing he could do about separating two female prisoners having sex because there were no empty cells available. David Tompkins was one of the RCMP city cell guards working the early morning hours...