Burton man guilty of witness intimidation
Dennis Jan Van Wissen, 58, claimed at trial that documents he dropped off with his boss had nothing to do with workplace threat prosecution
A judge has found a Burton man guilty of trying to intimidate his former boss at Base Gagetown and to get him to recant statements about a workplace threat he’d made.
Dennis Jan Van Wissen, 58, of Lindsay Lane in Burton, stood trial in Fredericton provincial court Feb. 7 on charges alleging he obstructed justice by attempting to dissuade a witness, and that he tried to intimidate that same witness.
In a decision rendered Monday, Judge Natalie LeBlanc found him guilty as charged on both counts.
Court heard at trial that Van Wissen is a retired member of the Canadian Forces who was working at Base Gagetown as a civilian employee in recent years.
He’d filed a complaint, alleging mistreatment by a superior - Capt. Mitchell Hargreaves - and Van Wissen attended a mediation session Dec. 10, 2019, arising from that complaint.
At that meeting with the mediator, Van Wissen threatened Hargreaves, leading to him being charged criminally with uttering a threat.
Court also heard another superior officer, Major Rodney Normore, witnessed the incident.
Van Wissen ultimately pleaded guilty to that charge, and he was scheduled for sentencing Jan. 26, 2021.
But the day before that sentencing hearing, Van Wissen dropped an envelope off on Normore’s office chair.
In it was a letter from the defendant and a demand he change his story about the statements he’d made about him, and he wanted him to attend court the next day to do it.
"At 0930hr on 26 January 2021, is the last chance for you to recant your allegations,” the letter said.
“You are going to cease your own Canadian military career. On your own accord. I'm going to assist in the process. In a public forum."
Given the impending court date in Van Wissen’s threat case, Normore testified he assumed it referred to the statement he’d given to military police about what happened at the mediation session.
The envelope also contained a copy of Hargreaves’ victim-impact statement and an image of a recording of Normore’s statement to military police about the threat.
The enclosed documents also included statements from Van Wissen noting he planned to see Normore and Hargreaves forced out of their military careers.
But Van Wissen, who’s no longer employed at Base Gagetown, testified the documents related to him contesting other workplace statements Normore had made and had nothing to do with what happened at the mediation session.
He said the only reason he dropped the materials off so close to his sentencing date was because he wanted to expose Normore’s lies in a public venue. His court proceeding fit the bill, Van Wissen said.
His defence lawyer, Sabrina Winters, had argued her client couldn’t have been trying to intimidate a witness because given Van Wissen’s guilty pleas and impending sentencing, Normore was no longer a witness in a court proceeding.
“There was no evidence to give,” she argued last month.
Winters also pointed out the papers Van Wissen delivered to Normore’s office included no mentions of physical harm or damage to property, but prosecutor Rebecca Butler countered that the threat was to Normore’s career and reputation.
Butler also argued a guilty plea and scheduled sentencing hearing doesn’t end a case. A trial could still have been possible if Van Wissen sought to withdraw his guilty pleas.
As such, she said, the prosecution was still live and Normore remained a potential witness at that time.
LeBlanc set the matter over to May 18 for sentencing.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.