Man changes pleas after charges read

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on September 13, 2023.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

A southern Alberta man who pleaded guilty to several criminal offences, changed his mind after he heard the allegations read in court.
Jonathan Russell Dyck pleaded guilty Monday in Lethbridge court of justice to charges of assault with a weapon, mischief causing damage and breach of release conditions. However, after details of the alleged offences were read into the record by the Crown, Dyck said he didn’t agree with the allegations and his pleas for assault with a weapon and mischief were struck by the judge and replaced with pleas of not guilty.
Court was told that on Oct. 13, 2019 two men were involved in a fight in a garage at the Crowsnest Pass residence belonging to Dyck and his friend, who was the other combatant. During the fight the other man felt a sharp pain in his back, and when he got up from the ground Dyck was standing nearby and holding a hammer.
Crown Prosecutor Michael Fox said at one point in the fight between the two men, Dyck intervened by striking one of the combatants with a hammer, fracturing a vertabra in the lower back.
However, Dyck disputed the allegations, and said he and his friend, who live in the same house, were unloading his trailer at the house when the third man arrived and ran into the yard.
“He just ran up to me and started swinging, so I started swinging back,” Dyck said. “He’s substantially bigger than me so I was not about to not defend myself.”
Dyck said he didn’t have a hammer or any other weapon at the time, and his friend was not involved in the altercation.
“I was unloading my car so there was no need for a hammer. I just had ratchet straps.”
Given his denial, Justice Kristin Ailsby struck Dyck’s guilty plea, and adjourned the matter until Thursday in Pincher Creek court to set a date for a trial.
Dyck also disputed the facts related by the Crown in the mischief charge, which alleges that on Oct. 26, 2019 the same three men were again involved in an altercation following a collision in the Village of Cowley on Highway 3 east of Crowsnest Pass.
The driver of a Chevy Silverado pickup truck told police Dyck and his friend got out of the other vehicle and began yelling and swearing at him before throwing large rocks at his vehicle, breaking the windshield.
But that’s not what happened, Dyck contended.
“I was stopped on the road on the shoulder…and he come and rammed into us and pushed us into a shed with his truck,” Dyck said.
He said he and his friend jumped out of the vehicle and didn’t know what to do, but his friend threw something at the other vehicle. “I can’t remember what it was,” Dyck said, insisting that he didn’t throw anything.
The accused’s guilty plea was struck and replaced with a plea of not guilty, and the charge was adjourned to Thursday in Pincher Creek, also to set a trial date. The charge of breach of release conditions was also adjourned to the same date, ostensibly for a plea and/or bail hearing.

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