An Edmonton paramedic who pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife this week should be able to keep his job after receiving a conditional discharge.
The discharge means the man won’t have a criminal record if he follows the court’s conditions.
The man’s wife reported the incident on June 10 a week after it first happened.
The couple argued on June 2, but ended the night without violence. The following morning at 7 a.m. the man woke his wife and immediately started pushing her. He pushed her out of bed and onto the floor. The young woman walked away but the man followed her, grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm while he attempted to remove her wedding rings.
She retreated to the bathroom. He followed her there and continued yelling at her.
The argument and assault ended the marriage and the couple is now in divorce proceedings. Judge Jeanne Burch agreed to the discharge, saying she did not feel the man was a threat.
“I don’t think he is in general a violent person who would be a risk to others.”
Under the terms of the discharge, he will have to abstain completely from alcohol, take counselling and have no contact with his estranged wife.
Burch underscored the conditional nature of the discharge with the man.
“The condition is that you pass the next 12 months on a probation order and not get into any more trouble.”
Fueled by booze and a previous brawl, a man who pushed an RCMP officer was handed a large fine this week.
Kurtis Urbanoski pleaded guilty to resisting a police officer and was handed a $750 fine, plus a $112 victim surcharge.
Urbanoski was initially charged with assaulting a police officer, but pleaded to the lesser charge as part of a plea arrangement.
The court heard the RCMP responded to a fight complaint at the Taphouse on Nov. 18 last year.
When they arrived, staff pointed them to Urbanoski near the back of the establishment. After a brief conversation Urbanoski hit the constable twice. The constable pulled his collapsible baton and hit Urbanoski twice, then placed him under arrest.
The constable was not seriously harmed in the incident.
