Bail denied, trial date to be set for Medicine Hat man accused of sexual assault

By Peggy Revell on September 27, 2017.

Bail was denied Wednesday to a Medicine Hat man who Crown prosecutors want designated as a dangerous offender.

Following a hearing at the Medicine Hat Courthouse, Judge P.G. Pharo refused to release Michael Christopher Delmas, who has been in custody for two-and-a-half years but who the Court of Appeals recently sided with to allow the withdrawal of guilty pleas for two counts of sexual assault and one count of choking with intent.

The 34-year-old man was arrested in April 2015 on these charges, and in the following month entered snap guilty pleas against the advice of duty counsel and the presiding judge. Sentencing was delayed for nearly a year, with the Crown obtaining permission from the Attorney General’s office to seek a dangerous offender designation for Delmas.

This designation can be considered if an accused receives a third conviction of a sexual offence and if the previous two resulted in jail terms of two or more years.

Delmas was sentenced to a 28-month jail sentence in 2007 after pleading guilty to the sexual assault of a woman in the downtown pedestrian underpass. In 2010, he was sentenced to a four-year jail term for sexual interference with a 14-year-old girl.

If a dangerous offender designation is granted, the court can impose an indeterminate sentence with no chance of parole for seven years, a regular sentence with an additional long-term supervision order, or simply a regular sentence.

Having then obtained legal counsel, Delmas requested that his guilty plea be withdrawn at a June 9, 2016, hearing, claiming his innocence and saying he would not have pled guilty if he had known it could lead to the dangerous offender designation. The judge who heard his original plea denied the request.

The hearing to decide if he should be labelled as a dangerous offender was originally set to start this Monday, but did not go ahead due to the Court of Appeals ruling that the withdrawal of the guilty pleas should be allowed.

Delmas’ next court appearance is Oct. 25, to confirm a trial date. A two-day trial is expected.