An American citizen pleaded guilty and was sentenced for possessing child pornography on July 14 in Estevan provincial court.
Mikhail Petrenko, a 27-year-old truck driver from North Port, Fla., entered a guilty plea to the charges, which come from an arrest made by Canadian Border Service agents on Oct. 5, 2009. The matter was set for trial that same day, before the plea was changed from not-guilty. A joint submission prepared by the defence and Crown was presented to Judge Karl Bazin, who accepted the agreed upon provisions.
Petrenko spent 15 days in jail, following his Oct. 5 arrest, and posted $4,000 cash bail on Oct. 19, 2009 to satisfy his release.
He was arrested after a search of his vehicle at the border turned up a laptop computer that was turned on and opened, as well as an external hard drive. A search of the devices found 290 images and 63 videos classified as child pornography, portraying children between 10 and 15 years old.
Petrenko's lawyer, Michael Weger, told Bazin that instances of child porn in his client's possession was small compared to the approximately 30,000 images or videos which depicted adult pornography. He said Petrenko's case is almost one of "mistaken possession," as his interest in the illegal material was merely a "curiosity," which he failed to delete from his computer after downloading.
Petrenko has no previous criminal record, and a minimum sentence for this type of offence was noted as 14 days. Because of his time served, the joint submission did not recommend further jail time, but the sentence included a $4,000 fine. He must also forfeit the laptop and hard drive that was seized by Border Services the day of the arrest.
After court, Petrenko and his wife, who travelled with him from Florida for the sentencing, attended the local RCMP detachment to provide a DNA sample and be registered into Canada's National Sex Offender Registry, which he will be listed under for the next 10 years. He was then escorted out of the country by Border Service agents at the North Portal border crossing, after which he will no longer be admissible to Canada.
In other court proceedings, a trial date was set for Dec. 5 for Devin Myles Glasser. He faces sexual interference charges, of which the Crown wishes to proceed by indictment.
Glasser elected a trial by provincial court. Because of the nature of the charges, the Crown prosecutor noted that Glasser, who no longer has legal counsel and will be representing himself at the trial, is not able to cross examine the complainant on the witness stand. Bazin made an order that counsel must be appointed to Glasser for the purposes of cross examining the witness but not to represent the defendant. The Crown also requested a publication ban be ordered in regards to the release of the complainant's name.
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A bail verification report was ordered for Ronald Himmelspeck during July 14 court proceedings. Himmelspeck has been in custody since the May long weekend, when he was arrested and charged for kidnapping, assault and extortion for his alleged involvement in an incident, which includes six co-accuseds.
The report was ordered to come back to the court on July 28.
A bail supervision report was also ordered for Creston Hanson, who remains in custody under the same charges as Himmelspeck and is alleged to be part of the same incident. His next court appearance will be July 25.
The reports for both Himmelspeck and Hanson will canvass the possibility of electronic monitoring in the event of their release from custody.
Estevan resident Bernard Sterling appeared in court July 14, as the judge heard Sterling's application for court-appointed counsel.
Sterling, who faces child pornography charges, failed to qualify for Legal Aid following a rejected appeal of the initial decision not granting him the service. Bazin said the purpose of a hearing to see Sterling's eligibility for a court-appointed lawyer is to determine why he cannot represent himself on the matter.
Sterling said he wasn't aware he could represent himself for the trial. He also told the judge, he received advice from both Legal Aid and the Crown prosecutor to have a lawyer represent him. Bazin reserved his decision until Monday, when he granted Sterling court-appointed counsel, considering that in the event of a conviction Sterling would be subject to a minimum of 45 days in custody for one of his charges, while the other charge carries a minimum of one year in prison.
"It would be unfair for the accused not to have legal counsel in this matter," he said.
