VIDEO: Monday court preview has Kent Institution front and centre with alleged assault, homicide, drug smuggling
Three cases involving B.C.'s only maximum institution this week are worth watching
Three cases are on my radar Monday morning looking ahead at this week in the courts. All three have minor appearances on Tuesday (May 13, 2025), which is referred to as "remand day" by those in the system.
1. Visitor accused of bringing contraband into prison
Cases on daily court lists jump out at me for four main reasons:
- names I recognize as prolific offenders or for other reasons;
- cases I've been following over time;
- very serious charges; or
- unusual charges.
This one is the latter. Someone named Neila Bouchagour, 56, is charged with one count of possession of contraband beyond visitor control point, and delivering or receiving contraband from inmate from an alleged incident on Nov. 10, 2025.
This presumably means Bouchagour is accused of smuggling drugs or phones right at the visitor centre of B.C.'s only maximum security prison, Kent Institution. I know no details of this case but when charges are posted in the online system, it lists the municipality of the offence. In this case it is Agassiz. That said, medium security Mountain Institution is also in Agassiz so it could be there.
2. Killer charged with aggravated assault
The name David Allen Geoghegan may now be familiar as one of two men convicted of killing Justin Smyth on Soowahlie land near Cultus Lake on Halloween 2019.
He was sentenced to eight years in prison convicted of kidnapping and manslaughter. With time served, by my calculation, he would have been given statutory release (two thirds of a sentence) in December 2026. However, since he refused to testify in the case of his co-accused Darius Commodore, Geoghegan was then convicted of contempt of court and 18 months was added to the end of his eight year sentence.
Now, he's charged with aggravated assault from an alleged incident on March 24, 2024.
3. Accused of killing a killer with the help of a killer
Therae Racette-Beaulieu is in court this week accused of murdering Christopher Braun in the cafeteria at Kent Institution helped by Michael Okemow, Theodore Anderson and Joseph Goulet on Dec. 15, 2024.
Kent is the only maximum security prison in B.C. and one of a handful in the country where we house potentially dangerous human beings who kill other human beings.
But if you kill someone at Kent, that's not the end of the road. Welcome to the SHU.
Near the small town of Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec, about 40 kilometres northwest of Montreal is the location of Correctional Service Canada's (CSC) blandly named Regional Reception Centre, which is home to Archambault Institution and the Regional Mental Health Centre. It's also the location of "the SHU." That's CSC's Special Handling Unit where about six dozen of the most dangerous men in the country live, the only super-max detention centre in Canada for inmates considered to be too high-risk for regular maximum-security prisons.
At the last scheduled appearance, Racette-Beaulieu didn't "show up," which wasn't his fault. In an institution such as this, they have to get the inmate to a room for a video conference, which requires a "spring order" to be submitted. Several steps need to fall into place and last time, on top of that, there was a power outage in Quebec so it didn't happen.
Stay tuned.
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Paul J. Henderson
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