Court Briefs: Oyen teen makes appearance Wednesday over no-contact breach

By Jeremy Appel on October 4, 2018.

jappel@medicinehatnews.com @MHNJeremyAppel

A young man arrested for breaching his bail condition of no contact with minors made a brief appearance at Medicine Hat Provincial Court on Wednesday.

Austin Palmer, 19, of Oyen appeared in person behind the prisoner box.

Lyndon Heidinger was present as agent for Palmer’s defence lawyer James Rouleau.

He requested an adjournment to Oct. 17, where Palmer will appear via closed-circuit TV from jail, which was granted by Judge Allan Lefever.

The accused faces eight charges — luring a child under the age of 18, luring a child under the age of 16, possessing child pornography, accessing child pornography and publishing child pornography, as well as two breaches.

Oyen RCMP allege Palmer approached two young girls and failed to report to them, as required by his recognizance.

He was originally arrested in March 2017 after a joint investigation between the Oyen RCMP and Medicine Hat ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation unit.

A week earlier, they had received a complaint from a child’s parent, who said they saw concerning messages on their daughter’s cellphone from an adult male.

Upon arrest, police searched Palmer’s Oyen residence, seizing several electronic devices and child pornography.

Carolan’s bail conditions amended

Michael Carolan, who is accused of impersonating a police officer at a kindergarten, had his bail conditions amended slightly at court Wednesday.

He was granted $10,000 no-cash bail on Sept. 19.

The recognizance includes a 24-hour curfew, which his defence lawyer had amended to include an exception for attending probation. The Crown agreed to this amendment.

Carolan, who was not present in court Wednesday, is on probation for a previous conviction of impersonating a police officer from 2017.

His case was adjourned to Oct. 18, so his counsel could receive further disclosure from the Crown.

Sexual exploitation case adjourned

Thomas William Meyer, who’s charged with 10 sexual offences including three counts of sexual exploitation and two counts of sexual contact with a minor, had his case adjourned a few weeks.

Lyndon Heidinger, who appeared as agent for Calgary-based defence lawyer Matthew Deshaye, said Deshaye needed more time to go through disclosure.

Meyer’s case was adjourned to Oct. 24.

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