Ralph Rowe on trial in Kenora, attempting to have current charges "stayed"
Friday- May 19 - from http://www.kenoradailyminerandnews.com./story.php?id=231726 (see the Tuesday story about this trial below)
No decision on motion to stay Rowe’s sex charges
By Dan Gauthier - Miner and News - Friday May 19, 2006
The decision on whether or not the latest charges against convicted sex offender Ralph Rowe, 66, should be stayed has been put over to a future date.
The pretrial hearing for Rowe – now facing a further 56 sex related charges involving children, including numerous counts of sexual and indecent assault, and two counts of buggery – concluded in Kenora Superior Court on Thursday afternoon.
Justice Erwin Stach, however, reserved his decision until a later court date that has yet to be determined. He said he needed time to review the arguments made in the Charter motion application by Rowe’s lawyer Robert Sinding.
“There’s a good deal for me to read,” said Stach at the conclusion of the hearing.
The next assignment court in Kenora is on June 5, when a court date for Stach’s decision could be chosen.
The charges against Rowe, who now lives in Surrey, B.C., stem from acts alleged to have taken place with boys between the ages of six and 16 in several First Nations communities in Northern Ontario between 1971 and 1986. It was during this period Rowe served as both an Anglican minister and a Boy Scout master in many of these remote communities.
Rowe was previously convicted in 1994 for 27 counts of indecent assault and one count of common assault after he pled guilty to sexually abusing 16 boys during the same time period, and in many of the same communities. He was sentenced to six years in jail, of which he served three years.
The Charter motion application made by Sinding is for a stay of the criminal proceedings due to court delays and abuse of process.
If the motion for the stay is granted, it could mean the end of the court proceedings against Rowe on all the latest charges.
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from http://www.kenoradailyminerandnews.com./story.php?id=231261
Pretrial underway to stay Rowe’s new sex charges
Former minister and convicted sex offender Ralph Rowe is in Kenora Superior Court this week for a pretrial motion to have over 50 sex-related charges against him stayed.
By Dan Gauthier - Miner and News - Wednesday May 17, 2006
Former minister and convicted sex offender Ralph Rowe is in Kenora Superior Court this week for a pretrial motion to have over 50 sex-related charges against him stayed.
Rowe, 66, now living in Surrey, B.C., is facing 56 charges including numerous counts of sexual and indecent assault, and two counts of buggery.
These charges are for acts alleged to have taken place between 1971 and 1986 with boys between the ages of six and 16 in several remote First Nations communities in Northern Ontario where Rowe served as both an Anglican minister and a Boy Scout master.
Rowe was previously convicted in 1994 for 27 counts of indecent assault and one count of common assault after he pled guilty to sexually abusing 16 boys during the same time period and in many of the same communities. He was sentenced to six years in jail, of which he served three years.
The Charter motion, put forth by Rowe’s defence attorney – Kenora lawyer Robert Sinding – is for a stay of the criminal proceedings due to court delays and abuse of process.
Nearly two days of arguments by both Sinding and Crown attorneys Richard Cummine and Peter Keen, including questioning several witnesses involved in both the 1994 charges and the latest charges, wrapped up on Tuesday afternoon in front of presiding Justice Erwin Stach.
The pretrial hearing, scheduled for the entire week, will continue this morning with final submissions of counsel, followed by Stach’s decision.
Should Justice Stach grant the motion for the stay, it would end the court proceedings against Rowe on all the latest charges.
All evidence given during this pretrial hearing is subject to a publication ban.
However, Sinding told the Daily Miner and News in an October interview that his case hinges on the terms of an agreement between the Crown attorney, John O’Halloran, and Rowe’s lawyer in 1994, Robert Young from Sioux Lookout.
According to Sinding, Rowe was specifically promised concurrent sentences in this agreement for any similar offences that occurred during the same period.
Sinding referred to a letter sent to Young from O’Halloran on April 15, 1994 prior to Rowe’s 1994 sentence, of which Sinding previously provided a copy to the Daily Miner and News.
In the letter, O’Halloran states, “I have no authority to bind the Crown not to proceed on any future, similar allegations (against Rowe). I do, however, make the representation that if substantially similar allegations against your client arise in the future in the Kenora District, that those matters will be dealt with by way of concurrent sentences.”
Sinding said by the Crown reneging on this agreement, it is violating Rowe’s Charter rights.