Addict spared jail time to attend rehab
Kurtis Stenger, 31, was sentenced Friday for long list of charges, including sharing intimate images, assaults, fraud and dangerous escapes from police in vehicles
A Fredericton man who tormented a woman for months, smashed into police cruisers and beat a jail guard in the head caught a break Friday when a judge cut him loose to get drug treatment.
Kurtis Stenger, 31, of Mataya Drive, was back in Fredericton provincial court in custody Friday to be sentenced for a wide variety of crimes to which he’d previously pleaded.
Court heard last month he terrorized a woman in the capital region.
He smashed the windows of her car and violated his probation Dec. 19, 2021; sent sexually explicit photos of the woman to her father, threatened her father online and violated his probation again Jan. 22, 2022; and menaced the woman and another man with a bat at her home in the early-morning hours of Feb. 7, 2022, marking yet another probation breach.
The woman’s identity is protected by a court-ordered publication ban, given the intimate-images offence.
“This was sent to the victim’s father. This was intended to intimidate her and humiliate her,” said prosecutor Rachel Anstey.
As a result of that violent and harassing behaviour, police were on the lookout for Stenger, court heard during a sentencing hearing last month.
He fled in a vehicle from a Mountie at high speeds at the Mactaquac Dam on Feb. 12, 2022; violating the terms of his release from custody July 6 and Aug. 6 by failing to remain under house arrest at his parents’ Pepper Creek home; and fleeing from police again in Fredericton, driving dangerously and breaching his release order later in July.
His most dangerous encounter with police occurred Aug. 2, court heard, when two Fredericton police officers spotted Stenger downtown and acted to arrest him on an outstanding warrant.
Stenger was driving a black pickup, and the two officers positioned their cruisers to box him in at the corner of Regent and Queen streets, but Stenger smashed into both police vehicles and managed to escape, taking off at a perilously high speed through the downtown core.
He’d also admitted to fraud, stemming from a Facebook Marketplace scam last year through which he fleeced a Halifax man of $1,500.
The court also dealt with another charge Friday that was transferred to Saint John so the defendant could be sentenced for all of his matters at once.
Crown prosecutor Gwynne Hearn said after Stenger was finally arrested again and remanded at the Saint John Regional Correctional Centre, there was a violent incident at the jail Oct. 4.
Correctional officers responded to a commotion on Unit 38 at the jail, she said, and Stenger was involved.
Stenger body-checked a correctional officer and then proceeded to punch him in the head repeatedly, Hearn said.
Hearn said the Crown was seeking a prison term of three years for the various crimes, less credit for time spent on remand.
Defence lawyer Edward Derrah said his client had already spent almost a year - 317 days - on remand, and when the customary 1.5-to-one credit for that time is applied, that comes to 425 days, or 14 months.
Derrah conceded the crimes called for more incarceration, but he asked the court to allow Stenger serve that time in the community subject to a conditional-sentence order (CSO).
He said his client has made arrangements to undergo in-patient drug rehab program at Sitanisk (St. Mary’s) First Nation.
The defence lawyer argued it would be better for Stenger and for the community at large that the offender get help for his addiction issues rather than to lock him up any further.
“Mr. Stenger has spent a substantial amount of time on remand,” he said.
“It would make more sense to put him in a program so he could emerge a better person.”
The root cause of Stenger’s crimes was his addiction to drugs, Derrah said.
“I’m sorry for the people I hurt,” the offender told the court Friday.
“I hope you’ll let me get help I desperately need.”
Judge Lucie Mathurin made note of the numerous breaches of court orders that were among the crimes for which Stenger was being sentenced and questioned if he could follow a conditional sentence.
“Why would I give you this chance at this point?” she said. “What’s different?”
“I never wanted to sober up before,” Stenger answered.
The judge said his crimes were concerning, as was his complete lack of self-control while he was using drugs.
“You’ve lost a way to control your anger,” Mathuring said, noting his choice to send explicit photos to a woman’s father was particularly egregious.
“It’s embarrassing … It’s disgusting.”
But she ultimately decided to give him the chance to get help, imposing a conditional sentence order (CSO) of 15 months.
“You’ll get a chance to go to this program,” the judge said. “Your sobriety is the most important thing at this point.”
She warned Stenger if he was to violate the conditions, he’d land back behind bars.
“You probably won’t get another chance to do a CSO,” Mathurin said.
Among the conditions by which Stenger must abide for the next 15 months will be to reside at a sober living residence through the week and at his parents’ home on the weekends. Court heard the rehab facility is closed on the weekends.
He’ll be under house arrest for the first five months of his sentence and subject to a curfew for the remaining 10 months.
The judge barred him from having contact with the victim, and she ordered him to attend and participate in any treatment programs as directed, to abstain from alcohol and drugs, to pay $500 to the victim and to delete any remaining intimate images or videos of the victim still in his possession.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.