Animal abuse, mental health, incest, secretly recording nudity & more: Tuesday morning in court
Tuesday is a busy day at the Chilliwack Law Courts and it's not pretty
With a holiday Monday, today (Tuesday, May 20, 2025) was maybe a little more chock-a-block at the Chilliwack Law Courts than normal, but there is always a long list on Tuesdays, which is referred to as remand day when dozens of cases are on the docket for short appearances.
I looked at the court list this morning and several items stuck out to me, either well-known individuals and/or unique charges and, boy, way too many cases of domestic violence. Way too many.
Here's a quick wrap-up of cases on the list, what happened, what didn't happen, what I saw in courtroom 204 where I sat for two hours, and some other results.
Alleged animal abuser wanted
Natalie Marie Ismond, born 1964, was due in courtroom 200 this morning for her third appearance facing two charges under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (PCAA). The two charges almost sound like the same thing with different syntax, and both fall under the category of the legal duties of persons responsible for animals. The first allegation is under section 9.1(1) which states that a person responsible for an animal must care for it and that includes protecting it "from circumstances that are likely to cause the animal to be in distress."
The second charge under 9.1(2) is that a person with an animal "must not cause or permit the animal to be, or to continue to be, in distress."
Charges under the PCAA come with a wide range of penalties the maximum of which include a fine up to $75,000 or imprisonment up to two years.
No 'catch and release' here
Defence lawyer Gurpreet Gill came into courtroom 204 and suggested that her client in cells downstairs in the courthouse might have a mental health issue that needed addressing. She wondered if he was certified under the mental health act.
Deputies with the BC Sheriff Service brought Byron Howard Davies up to the courtroom where he wouldn't shut up, constantly interrupting Gill, Crown counsel appearing via video, and the judge. Anyone who has spent time downtown Chilliwack has seen Davies walking around as he's a fixture.
When he was brought in, the judge asked him if he understood what the judge's role is, what defence counsel's role is, and what Crown's role is. With that, he was determined to be fit enough to proceed. The court then heard that while he was on probation he caused a disturbance at Ruth & Naomi's punching a security guard in the face, then later when released on bail he is accused of breaching the bail by harassing a woman.
While Davies was seeking release on bail, Crown opposed it given the violent nature of his charge and his constant violations while released.
"Your client is in a reverse onus position," the judge told Gill, meaning that because of changes in legislation, for violent offences, release is not the default position. The accused has to explain why they should be released and have a plan. Not only did he have a bad plan, he kept interrupting, claiming the woman he allegedly harassed liked him and that he didn't assault anyone, it was "a fight." Interestingly the name of the "loss-prevention officer" he assaulted was Lough Plumridge, a name that jumped out at me for his history of car thefts a decade ago. Either Plumridge has turned his life around or his employer might want to do more of a background check.
As Davies escalated by interrupting the hearing, a second sheriff came and sat in the back of the courtroom. Then a third. Then a fourth opened the door from the back into the prisoner's box, then a fifth.
"Am I getting out?" he asked looking around. "Please let me go."
He told the court that he has Asperger's syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, schizophrenia, and that he is on anti-psychotic drugs while in custody.
The judge detained him, concluding that Davies presented a risk if released, pointing out that his psychological problems only seem to be under control while he is in custody.
Drunk driving is still a thing
There were five impaired driving cases on the court list ranging from cases dating back to a month ago to six months ago. Incidentally, the Abbotsford Police Department posts a summary of their weekend activity and said today that they dealt with nine cases of impaired drivers on the long weekend.
Pervy stuff
There are always numerous individuals, usually men, charged with offences of a sexual nature. On the court list on Tuesday were nine different people charged with disturbing ones.
• One person charged with publication of intimate image without consent;
• Two different people charged with very similar offences: secretly observe/record nudity in a private place, and secretly observe/record nudity or sexual activity;
• Four different people charged with sexual interference with someone under 16; and one of those men most disturbingly of all, who appeared via video from custody in Kamloops, is also charged with sexual exploitation, sexual assault, and incest. Because of the laws around protecting victims of sexual crimes, and because the alleged victim is related to the accused, the name of the man who allegedly had sex with an underage family member can never be legally made public.
Domestic assault epidemic
Also overlapping the secretly recording sex is one among 26 K files on the court list today. More than two dozen people, 22 people with typically male-sounding names and four with female, are charged with domestic violence.
Four cases continue
There were four cases on the court list today that have been written about before on this site, all that were either advanced or pushed over to another date:
- Philipe Ovid Poisson appeared via video link for what was scheduled to be his guilty plea, but it was put over to next week. Poisson is a high-risk pedophile from the U.S. accused of killing a 67-year-old man at Kent Institution last summer. Interestingly and somewhat unusually, his video appearance was paused and the judge asked the clerk to leave it on the screen while they dealt with another video appearance, that of Chadd Cardinal who was at Kent Institution. When Cardinal's appearance was over and at the end of Poisson's, Poisson pointed out to the court that he could hear what happened in Carrdinal's because both videos were up at the same time and maybe that was not appropriate.
- Lorne James Sims was on the court list charged in a K file with uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, assault, forgery, and fraud. Sims is an unapologetic prolific offender once convicted of stealing out of vehicles owned by volunteer firefighters in Popkum while they were out on a call.
- Richard Drew Macinnes who was accused of murdering Michael Scullion outside a Agassiz bar in 2008 was on the court list Tuesday now facing drug trafficking and firearms charges. Despite considerable circumstantial evidence, Macinnes was not convicted of the homicide but only of indignity to human remains for bringing Scullion's body all the way to Delta where he dumped him in the Fraser River.
- Landon Preik was also on the court list facing 10 firearms charges connected to allegations he was involved with an anti-government militia in 2021 during the pandemic. The now 41-year-old Preik was arrested after an investigation begun “as a result of several videos posted to social media, in the interest of public safety.”
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Paul J. Henderson
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