The accused was in custody. During his youth sentence review, he had spoke on the phone with his friend. The phone calls were recorded. While speaking with his friend he made death threats against a Crown Attorney, Judge and Probation Officer. He said he was going to shot the Crown Attorney and knock her off, that his Probation Officer needed to be burnt and die painfully, and that the he was going to blow the Judge’s brain out. The accused was charged with uttering threats against a Crown Attorney, Judge and Probation Officer.
The Crown Attorney tried to prove the death threats…
The Crown Attorney argued the death threats were uttered in a serious manner and, therefore, they were intended to be taken seriously. Joshua Rogala argued that the accused was frustrated by the court process. He argued that these words were simply uttered in frustration and in order to vent his feelings. They were not intended to be taken serious. In order to advance his argument, he called the accused and the friend he had spoken with on the phone. Case law was provided to support his argument that the death threats were not criminal. He took the Judge through the entire history of the case and phone conversation to provide context to the accused words.
The Judge carefully consider the arguments advanced by both parties. Based on arguments advanced by Joshua Rogala, the Judge agreed that the accused did not intend his word to be taken seriously. The court found him not guilty of all charges.
Read about another uttering threats case Joshua Rogala sucessfully defended.