H.P. court docket
Jan. 23, 2017
Judge D.R. Shynkar
A man from Gift Lake learned an expensive lesson for not showing up at the local police station as required for serving a weekend sentence.
Dean Harvey Cunningham, 42, was fined $500, plus a $150 surcharge, each for two counts of being unlawfully at large when he appeared in High Prairie provincial court Jan. 23.
He failed to report at High Prairie RCMP station on two Fridays at 7 p.m. to serve sentence time on weekends, says Crown prosecutor Andre Arseneau.
Cunningham was working in Falher on one of the Fridays until 10 p.m. after he accepted his supervisor’s request to stay later because a job was nearly complete, says lawyer Harry Jong.
However, he was advised otherwise in court.
“If you tell the boss you have to go, you tell him, and you go,” Judge D.R. Shynkar says.
Cunningham later turned himself into police, Jong adds.

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Sheldon Callio was fined $1,000, plus a $300 surcharge, for failing or refusing to provide a breath sample to police.
He was driving a motorcycle in High Prairie on July 22 when it fell on its side and police suspected he had been intoxicated, the Crown says.
With no prior driving criminal record, Callio was also automatically suspended from operating a vehicle for one year.

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Kyle Donovan Bellerose, 30, of Grande Prairie, was fined $200, plus a $60 surcharge, for failing to comply with an undertaking.
On an order to abstain from alcohol and intoxicating substances, he was located near High Prairie Liquor Store “acting irritably”, the Crown says.
“He showed signs of alcohol and narcotics,” Arseneau says.
Bellerose had just bought and consumed alcohol.
“He says he was suffering from depression, so he thought alcohol would solve it,” duty counsel Jong says.
Bellerose was also warned by he judge.
“If you promise, on release, to not drink, then you can’t drink,” Shynkar says.

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William Jason Emard, 42, of Calgary, was sentenced to one day in jail, with credit for time served, for breach of probation.
“He was seen by High Prairie RCMP coming out of The Cozy Corner Pub on Jan. 11,” the Crown says, which breached an order to abstain from alcohol.
“When they spoke with him, he had glossy eyes and his speech was slurred.”
That was the first time he consumed alcohol since Nov. 11, lawyer Jong says.
“He walked by the liquor store and then went in to buy two large beers,” Jong says.
Besides the lapse, he continues to progress on the path to a sober lifestyle.
“He wants to stop drinking and he’s making a new life in Calgary,” Jong says.
Those improvements pleased the judge.
“He’s making efforts to do something about his drinking problem,” Shynkar says.

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Caleb Samson Auger was fined $300, plus a $45 surcharge, for driving a motor vehicle while disqualified.
“He was a suspended driver,” the Crown says.

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Christopher A. Trindle was fined $115 for unlawful consumption of alcohol.
“He was drinking where he wasn’t supposed to be drinking,” the judge says.