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'We have no judge for you': Man's assault charges dropped weeks before trial due to lack of judges in Toronto (toronto.ctvnews.ca)

submitted 6 months ago by lautan@lemmy.ca to c/toronto@lemmy.ca

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A man who was accused of sexually and physically assaulting a woman had his charges dropped in April, just weeks before he was set to stand trial in Toronto, due to a lack of judges in the region.

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[–] breakingcups@lemmy.world 17 points 6 months ago

How fucking awful for the victim.

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'm not advocating for violence, but hypothetically, if a group of people decided to intact their own form of justice on this guy, would the courts also drop their case "due to lack of judges"? Because that's an interesting loophole.

[–] hobovision@lemm.ee 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Risky strategy because it is probably either a luck of the draw scenario or the prosecutor (is that how they're called in Canada?) deciding which cases have the lowest chance of winning on trial.

If Canada is anything like the US, most criminal cases never make it to trial and the judge is only involved to approve a plea deal. If every criminal case went to trial it would overwhelm the courts.

[+] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca -7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

We should use AI to just cases in these scenarios.

I mean FFS, our local police issued an advisory listing the following:

"prior criminal convictions for Sexual Assault, Sexual Assault with a Weapon, Assault with a Weapon, Assault, Robbery, Possession of Explosives, Uttering Threats, and Failing to Comply with Probation Orders."

Someone like that in this situation should default to being locked up until a judge is available. It's not like the judge would say "you're free to go" anyway, so who gives a damn about keeping him in jail?

It should always be about protecting victims (past and future), as well as showing the community that they are being kept safe. The justice system failed on all counts!

[–] KISSmyOSFeddit@lemmy.world 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

We should use AI to just cases in these scenarios.

Fuck no!

Someone like that in this situation should default to being locked up until a judge is available.

Also Fuck No!

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca -3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Why not?

Literally, the other is letting a repeat offender who just broke his original court order and poses "and significant risk to the public" (the words of the police) free.

Why on earth would you want that?

[–] weker01@feddit.de 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I do not know about this specific case nor am I in a position to decide what should or shouldn't be happening about that person.

One thing you wrote really sounded my alarm bells. "(the words of the police)". This is dangerous. The police should not do the judicial side of things! Neither explicitly nor implicitly. Police is biased by design against suspects.

And that is even if you disregard the numerous bad actors that police structures attract.

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 0 points 6 months ago

OK, since you don't know the specifics of this case, you can't say much. It is an extraordinary circumstance.

To the point, this guy is a repeat violent rapist and pedophile who already proved he can't be trusted to follow court orders.

His ex-wife, who he almost murdered, already spoke to the danger he puts everyone in, including her.

It's extremely rare for our local police to warn the community about someone who's been released into their backyard. He 100% should not have been.

[–] KISSmyOSFeddit@lemmy.world 4 points 6 months ago

I trust the words of the police about as much as those of a violent gang.
And I'm against locking up people without a trial on principle.