A prolific offender living in the South Okanagan has one last chance to prove he is too sick to serve his jail sentence.
“Unless you’ve got some medical information supporting the fact that you are unable to comply with the intermittent jail sentence, but absent that I think my direction is going to be that you’re going to have to serve your intermittent sentence,” said Judge Greg Koturbash.
Ronald Teneycke provided documents to Crown counsel Kevin Foley from Interior Health and Forensic Psychiatric Services Commission, however the documents did not outline his inability to serve the sentence. Teneycke has yet to serve any time on his intermittent jail sentence, to be served on weekends, despite appearing before the court on three separate occasions and once represented by his sister since an order was made to change the start date on April 30.
Teneycke pleaded guilty to his most recent charges of making or possessing explosives and possessing a weapon contrary to a court order. The 52-year-old was sentenced on April 9 to time served since his Jan. 22 arrest, as well as an additional 90 days, a lifetime firearm ban and three years probation.
“The Crown’s concerned that we’re never going to get to these weekends,” Foley said.
While Koturbash doesn’t doubt that the noticeably thin Teneycke is undergoing some medical issues, he has given him one more chance to prove he is unfit for jail.
“I’m not doubting you, you don’t look great,” said Judge Greg Koturbash “I was hoping you would have some sort of letter from a doctor or something.”
When presented with the option of receiving care in custody, Teneycke said the healthcare in the correctional centre is “really, really horrible.”
Teneycke said his doctor is suggesting he won’t be fit to serve his sentence for three to five months.
The matter was set over to Thursday at the Penticton Court House.
Teneycke spent 12 years in federal prison, most of those years related to being found guilty of a sexual assault with a weapon on a 17-year-old female. Since his release in 2007, Teneycke has returned to jail several times for breaches of probation and in 2013 was found guilty of possession of methamphetamine.