I am the founder of Humanity Against Local Terrorism – HALT which website is http://www.haltnow.ca/. This is a website to help stop bullying, abuse and domestic violence.
I have to explain why I made a split decision choice to protect my son that goes against everything that I stand for. Two years ago there was involved in an incident with another coach which ended up with me striking the other coach, in self defense, to stop him from going for a bat to either come after me or my 11 year old son.
I have to explain why I made a split decision choice to protect my son that goes against everything that I stand for. Two years ago there was involved in an incident with another coach which ended up with me striking the other coach, in self defense, to stop him from going for a bat to either come after me or my 11 year old son.
I am adding the articles from a news reporter that has made me guilty before the court was even over. I am adding some of his articles for you to know that I am not hiding anything.
[1] Batting cage dispute ends in punch-up - http://www2.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/city/story.html?id=8a392a47-1bf9-4956-b1b5-7b504716e33d
[2] Dad applies for mistrial in batting cage rage case - http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx
[3] Founder of anti-bullying website avoids prison in batting-cage rage case - http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Founder+anti+bullying+website+avoids+prison+batting+cage+rage+case/5114804/story.html
I have already applied for an appeal so that I can re-try my case. I fired my first lawyer and am presently taking him up against the Law Society for poor conduct and negligence. He had all the proof to help me get an finding of innocent and failed on every avenue. Even when the other coach said after he was asked “what were you going for?”, the other coach said “A BAT”. This is in the transcript.
Since this Blogging is new to me it may take me a little time to find out how I can get my transcripts from the court onto the Blog so everyone can read what was said and make up their own mind. I am innocent and will spend the rest of my life proving this. If anyone knows of a way I would appreciate your help.
I can only give my side of the story, which I believe must be stated, since all anyone is reading is the victims account; and his account was completely different from his two witnesses; yes even his two witnesses. This incident all happened within approx. one minute and has changed my life completely. Please read why I made a decision to go against everything I believe in and make a move for self-defence.
My side leading to self-defense:
[1] I coached baseball on and off for many years
[2] I had the batting cage booked every weekend at the same time for the entire season. When we were there we never had anyone else show up from other teams to practice, until the incident day.
[3] I came in and let the other coach know that I had the batting cage booked, which he in turn aggressively told me to leave and come back later. I must state that I had a cast on one of my feet.
[4] The only people in the cage at this time was the other coach, a player from his team at the end of the batting cage, my 11 year old son and myself. The only addition to this was one of his witnesses that came in during the incident and just watched everything transpire without stepping in.
[5] After trying to reason with this man I just ignored him and starting to move up the 115 lbs pitching machine into place with the hopes that the coach would realize it was time to leave.
[6] As I was getting closer to the pitching machines location he came over and knocked me over and into the pitching machine. As I was trying to keep this 115 lbs machine from falling over (bottom leg in cast) he immediately picked up a ball and pitched it to the player that was standing at the end of the batting cage.
[7] After re-setting the machine, he must have realized that I was not going anywhere so he started to pick up the basket of balls and threw them (x2) over the batting cage pitching area. Then started yelling “I am tired of you f***** guys…” He is swearing and kicking all the balls over the end of the batting cage. (his witnesses attest to this throwing of the balls).
[8] By now my 11 year old son is standing next to me since he was scared of what was going on.
[9] The coach then came right up to my face and said twice “Do you want to go”; which I said no. (One of his witnesses stated that he heard him say this, my son told the police officer that he said this and I said this in court.)
[10] After I said no he immediately turned around and started to lift up the mess (fish line) wall where his bat bag was laying. I stood there watching him and after I realized he was going for a bat I took a step towards him and hit him to try to stop him from grabbing a bat.
[11] I didn’t know what else to do since my son was with me, we were 20 feet from the exit where his witness had been watching the whole time, there were 2 baskets of ball scattered all over the area and I was in a foot cast. I had no place to go. I just swung to stop him from grabbing a bat and unfortunately hit him in the face. I am so sorry for hurting this man. No one desearves to be hurt by another person. All I was trying to do is protect my son and myself. This was 100% self-defense.
[12] The only people now around at this time were a few extra adults. No other children.
[13] I confronted the witness and brought up the point that he (a) assaulted me by pushing me against the pitching machine, (b) threw 2 baskets of balls potentially at me, (c) asked me if “I wanted to go” and then (d) he was going for a bat. (One of his witnesses stated that I said this to him. Why would I say this immediately after unless it happened?)
[14] I immediately wrote down what happened in my vehicle and then went to the police to press charges on him for his assault with the pitching machines. When the police officer asked for the other coach’s name I did not know who he was so I could not press charges.
If I can get the transcript on you can read this for yourself.
At the end the judge ignored the other coach's witness’s accounts and judged me on the other coach’s account (which contradicted his own witnesses account). One of the main issues that I am confused about is how can this other coach lie in court to what happened while he had swore on the bible to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I bring this up since it goes against everything that I believe in.
I will continue to keep you up to date with what happens at the appeal date. I also think that it may be a good idea to add copies of the character witness statements that were included to help the judge understand you I am in so many words and my letter to the Law Society outlining in 7 pages every area that my 1st lawyer dropped the ball in helping me receive a finding of innocent. Again, if you can help me understand how to add these documents I would appreciate it.
I started HALT to stop bullying, abuse and domestic violence. I am 100% against any sort of violence of any kind. That is why I have spent over 400 hours building this site as a starting point for people who are in trouble. I would not accomplish this dream and then do something to tear it down.
Over the past two years, I was guilty until proven guilty. I am innocent (it was self-defense and I did turn my check 3 times before I had to protect my family) and will prove it.
This to me is an act of self-defense. When you have one party reaching for a weapon (in this case a base ball bat) there needs to be some kind of instinctive reaction. If the defending party did not react in time there could have been severe injury. There have been cases of road rage where a vehicle purposely blocked another vehicle in a parking lot. The aggressive party insists and yells at the other driver to get out of his vehicle. He says no.. And the aggressive party goes back to his car to open his trunk and reaches for a possible weapon ( a tire iron). In order to protect yourself you must act instinctively as you have the right to protect yourself and others. It is taught in many self defense courses that in order to prevent injury/death to yourself you must "Cut the head of the snake before it strikes" meaning you eliminate the possibility, as quickly as possible, of severe injury with a weapon. This is self defense plain and simple. If you reach for a bat in the bag your intentions are clear and threatening. Imagine if John was a police officer what his instinctive reaction would be…
ReplyDeleteLegally, Self defense is classified as the use of force in times of dangerous situations, and the threat to physically cause harm to someone. There also must be legal provocation where a party in question proves that if self defense was not used.. Physical harm would be the result. In this case it seems clear that the man in question intentions was not to start hitting baseballs as he temporally left the conflict to reach for a baseball bat in his ball bag. One hit was administered to the provoking male, and there was no brutality of causing further harm by repetitively hitting the man. Thus…Self Defense.
Pat.