Grand Lake woman found unfit to stand trial
Tanya Irene Wilson, 42, pleads with judge to release her, professes innocence and ignorance of charges, but court remands her to Restigouche Hospital Centre in Campbellton
A Redbank woman agreed with a psychiatrist’s finding she’s unfit to stand trial on varied charges and in need of help, but she objected Tuesday to being remanded to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.
Tanya Irene Wilson, 41, of Parkhill Road in Red Bank, near Chipman, appeared in Fredericton provincial court by video from the New Brunswick Women’s Correctional Centre in Miramichi on Tuesday for a fitness hearing.
She’s charged with a variety of alleged offences over the course of the past few months. The charges are as follows:
taking a 2014 Dodge Ram belonging to Hugh Morton without consent Aug. 7 and Sept. 10 at Redbank;
taking a 2015 Chevrolet Malibu without the consent of owner John Williams and damaging that vehicle Sept. 11, at Cumberland Bay, about 20 kilometres south of Chipman;
defrauding Hugh Morton of less than $5,000 in cash in Minto on Sept. 25;
prowling at night on the property of Katherine Murray on Hillcrest Avenue in Chipman and assaulting Murray on Oct. 11;
assaulting Morton and uttering a threat to cause him death and/or bodily harm Han. 4 in Redbank;
and resisting an RCMP officer Jan. 7 in Redbank.
Wilson had previously been ordered to undergo a psychiatric assessment to determine if she was fit to stand trial on those charges, and Judge Natalie LeBlanc said the court had received two reports that both found she was unfit.
Being deemed unfit to stand trial means an offender is in a mental state that renders them unable to assist or instruct defence counsel on how they want to proceed, or to understand the court process and the roles the judge and lawyers play.
Prosecutor Rodney Jordan and duty counsel Gwynne Hearn said the Crown and defence both accept the findings of the psychiatric reports, and LeBlanc did so as well.
The judge said the next step was to determine how to proceed.
Jordan said the case ought to be referred to the review board for disposition, though he added the Crown still maintains its objection to Wilson’s release and said that means she should be held at the Restigouche Hospital Centre for treatment until she’s deemed fit again.
“My understanding is that [the review board] would make that determination, and I assume we would all be advised,” the prosecutor said.
The New Brunswick review board is a body that oversees the cases of defendants deemed unfit to stand trial and offenders found to be not criminally responsible for their actions due to mental disorders at the time of their crimes.
It’s based at the Restigouche Hospital Centre, a secure forensic psychiatric facility in Campbellton.
Hearn said while Wilson acknowledges she’s mentally ill and needs treatment for that, but she also wants to be released.
“She wants treatment before answering to the charges, but she’s adamant it happen in the community,” the defence lawyer said.
Wilson kept pleading with the court to release her.
LeBlanc said the review board will hold a disposition hearing for her in the next 45 days and that the defendant will be remanded to Restigouche.
“You will not be released today, ma’am,” the judge said.
That sent Wilson into a tirade in which she professed her innocence.
“I didn’t do anything,” she said, claiming the charges were “from a man that’s lied.”
Wilson said she had to be released because her apartment is on the line.
“This isn’t right!” she said.
The defendant also said she understood what the charges are, didn’t know what they were and that the charges didn’t exist in the first place.
“I know what the charges are,” Wilson said.
“I’m not even charged with anything.”
LeBlanc remanded her to Restigouche and noted the case will be returned to provincial court if and when the defendant is determined to be fit.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.