When a 15-year-old girl sneaked out of the house for the umpteenth time to meet her drug-dealing boyfriend at a party, her father went after her in his truck.There really are only two choices here. Intervene... and take the consequences... or watch your child disappear down the toilet.
He spotted her at a pay phone near their home outside Picton, Ont., and told her to get in. She refused, and he grabbed her by the shirt and shoved her into the truck.
The shirt-grabbing incident didn't end there. The father, who can't be named to protect his daughter's identity, was charged with assault, setting off a two-year legal battle that tested the limits of how far a parent can go to discipline a teen under the Criminal Code.
"It's just about wore me out," he said yesterday. "You got to think of your child's health and welfare, because you love them, you raised them, you care for them."**********
RELATED: A ten thousand dollar 'taxpayer' duck
Skip this one if you have high blood pressure issues...
A member of the legal profession, who asked not to be named, said the entire event, court proceedings, legal bills and travel expenses, probably cost the government about $10,000 for what would have been a $250 fine if Mr. Rice had been convicted.Which, of course, he wasn't.
**********
LAST WORD: No problem, we'll pay for it
Yeah... that'd be the "royal 'taxpayer' we"
A man accused of murder in a triple-shooting in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, last year has been told he can hire a Toronto lawyer and have the territory's legal aid system pay, a judge has ruled.*
Christopher Bishop, 22, faces three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder from the Jan. 6, 2007, shooting incident in the western Nunavut hamlet.
Browne ordered the board, which runs the territory's legal aid system, to pay Martin the legal aid rate to represent Bishop, as well as cover Martin's airfare, meals and accommodation costs.