Court Briefs: TFW facing sex assault charges now risks immigration law issues

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on November 25, 2022.

https://www.medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews

A temporary foreign worker charged with sexual assaulting several coworkers would be forced to break immigration law if he is required to remain in Canada for a trial, a Medicine Hat defence lawyer told court on Thursday.

Eligio Carlos Mondragon was charged this summer with five counts of sexual assault, and as part of his release conditions was required to surrender his passport to the Redcliff RCMP.

Attorney Lyndon Heidinger said his client intends to enter a not-guilty plea to the charges. Crown prosecutors say it should proceed to trial by summary nature, rather than the more serious indictable charge.

That likely couldn’t be scheduled and completed before Dec. 15, which is the point at which Mondragon is required to have left Canada to comply with his work permit.

“(The passport order) potentially puts him offside with the law,” explained Heidinger.

Chief Crown prosecutor Jace Cowan called it a “double-edged sword,” and that he would be open to discussing alternative arrangements that would satisfy both immigration officials and the criminal court requirements.

Provincial court Judge Mark Mastel suggested since the matter returns to court before the Dec. 15 deadline, the two sides should continue to work on a resolution.

The matter was adjourned to next week at which time a trial date could be set as well.

Traffic jam

A local man with more than 170 past convictions for driving offences had 17 new charges transferred back to traffic court in Medicine Hat on Thursday.

Robin Brent Fitzgerald, 46, is currently in custody at the Medicine Hat Remand Centre facing several criminal matters along with six separate counts of driving while disqualified, and various counts of driving with an expired licence while uninsured and operating an unregistered motor vehicle.

On Thursday, new defence attorney Scott Hadford successfully petitioned to have 25 different blocks of charges separated into criminal and non-criminal matters.

That will allow provincial court to deal with the serious charges more quickly, he argued, including fraud under $5,000, possession of stolen property, escaping lawful custody and failing to comply with court orders.

“We’d like to get this cleaned up as soon as possible,” said Hadford.

The traffic matters move to various dates in traffic court, while the criminal matters will be taken up again in provincial court next month.