A neighbourly dispute in Bridesville, B.C. has ended in an eight-month house arrest sentence — and two-and-a-half years in court later, the accused can finally have a beer.
After a few years, a guilty plea, an uncompleted trial and another guilty plea, Charles Thomas Houle’s court case ended in the same way as the assault that sparked it: with a handshake. This time, however, that handshake was between a self-represented Houle and the Crown lawyer, instead of Houle and the victim.
At the end of the hearing, Houle, who has been under a no-drinking order, asked Judge Gale Sinclair whether he would be able to drink — a request that was granted.
Houle, 57, pleaded guilty to uttering threats, a breach of probation and assault causing bodily harm after he and an employee attacked his neighbour in August 2015 for spraying cardboard on Houle’s property.
But the dispute goes back further than that, with an assault charge from December 2014.
Houle’s co-accused, Johnathan Jacob Taylor-Miller, an employee of Houle, was sentenced on the matter in October 2016.
Houle, on the other hand, initially entered a guilty plea in March 2016, withdrew that plea — a legal maneuver not commonly granted by judges — scheduled a trial for April 2017, rescheduled and stood trial in October 2017 and then entered another guilty plea.
In court Friday afternoon, it almost appeared the sentencing would go to a sentencing trial with witnesses called, but Houle backed down on some claims, saying he wanted to resolve the issue.
In particular, he claimed he had been shielding the victim, Ronald Street, from Taylor-Miller when he grabbed a 2x4 and began swinging it.
Rather than call witnesses, however, Crown lawyer Andrew Vandersluys brought up video surveillance of the attack.
In the video, as Street sprays his hose onto Houle’s property over a chain link fence, Taylor-Miller hops over an adjacent fence and takes him to the ground and the two throw punches, and Street manages to get on top.
Houle soon follows over the fence and runs at Street “like a bull,” in Houle’s words, tackling Street off Taylor-Miller and throws punches. The struggle becomes more of a wrestle on the ground, with Houle pinning Street.
Taylor-Miller comes back with a 2x4 and swings a couple dozen times, but Houle suggested the swings mostly hit the ground, while he effectively laid on top of Street.
Eventually, the two get up and shake hands.
Houle was also charged with criminal harassment for a couple of instances in which he had threatened Street’s employee, but that was downgraded to uttering threats.
Though it took two-and-a-half years to settle the matter, the Crown acknowledge the guilty plea as a mitigating factor, as well as Houle’s willingness to move on. He now lives in Okanagan Falls and said he has not been back to Bridesville since the incident.
But a pre-sentence report noted Houle was unwilling to accept responsibility for the assault, and he often blamed police or the victim for the incident.
Indeed, he regularly suggested in court he was provoked by Street, and at one point said he believed he was being targeted by Street and others for buying property for a recycling facility that others did not want in the community.
But in court he said he was taking responsibility for what he did, and Sinclair took that into account in his sentencing, noting he did not see Houle as a risk to the community.
Crown suggested up to six months in jail, but instead Sinclair made it eight months of house arrest.