Judge-threat suspect brings more chaos to court
Judge considers Joshua Daniel Grant Burden, 48, may need to be excluded from proceedings if his track record of ranting, yelling and cursing continues
A volatile defendant in custody on charges including sexual assault and uttering threats was just as disruptive in court in person Monday as he has been remotely from jail.
Joshua Daniel Grant Burden, 48, of no fixed address, was brought to Fredericton provincial court in person Monday for a bail hearing.
The hearing stemmed from charges laid recently alleging he threatened provincial court Judge Scott Brittain, tried to intimidate him and breached his probation in the process, all on June 19.
Nova Scotia provincial court Judge Diane McGrath, who’d been brought in to deal with the case given the threat against the New Brunswick judge, had attempted to deal with the bail hearing last Thursday.
However, the unruly defendant, appearing in court by video at that time, wasn’t co-operative, ranting and cursing after he thought the judge referred to him by the wrong name, when in fact she’d been talking to the prosecutor at that time.
McGrath, who noted she’d be on vacation for three weeks beginning Monday, set the bail hearing over to Monday, and the judge ordered that Burden be brought to court in person in the hope that he’d be calmer and that communication would be clearer.
But Judge Pierre Arseneault, who normally presides over provincial court in Moncton, discovered Monday that wasn’t going to be the case.
“He’s asking to be released,” said duty counsel Gerald Pugh.
Burden wants to live in the Saint John area now, Pugh said, but later in the proceedings, the defendant insisted he had a place to live on Two Nations Crossing.
The June 19 counts allege offences when Burden was in court to answer to other outstanding charges.
Those counts include breaking into City Auto on Main Street and stealing a vehicle belonging to Nicolas McPhee on April 19; sexually assaulting a woman June 6; uttering threats to Eric Lanteigne and Terri-Lynn Stewart, and breaching a no-contact order with the sex-assault complainant on June 7; as well as related counts of probation violation.
The identity of the complainant listed in the sex-assault charge is protected by a court-ordered publication ban.
During Monday’s proceedings, Burden kept insisting he couldn’t have committed the earlier crimes because he was incarcerated at the Saint John jail then.
“There’s a big mixup here,” he said, reiterating he was arrested last October and has been in custody since that time.
However, he also said Monday and during previous court appearances he had been at the Oak Centre this spring and that the sexual contact alleged in the June 6 charge was consensual, which contradicts his assertion he’s been in jail since last fall.
Arseneault said the court file shows Burden has been in custody since June, not October.
Burden grew increasingly agitated and irate as Monday morning’s proceedings wore on, cursing while he contended he couldn’t have committed the earlier crimes.
“That’s why I got heated with the judge,” he said, referring to Brittain and the events of June 19. “It don’t make no sense. This is a witch hunt.”
Burden tried to deny the charges against him, while also acknowledging he went too far when he was before Brittain June 19.
“I plead not guilty to everything except threatening a judge,” he said, but then he changed his mind, and denied all of the charges, including those stemming from his comments to Brittain.
Arseneault said the court would proceed with the bail hearing as planned, and prosecutor Matthew Paik noted it was a reverse-onus situation.
That means rather than the Crown having to show why Burden’s detention is justified, the defendant instead must demonstrate to the court why his detention isn’t necessary.
Burden became further enraged, yelling and cursing as deputy sheriffs removed him forcibly from the courtroom when the judge ordered him taken out.
As he was pulled from the courtroom, the defendant said something about punching someone’s “fucking face off,” but it wasn’t clear to whom he was referring.
He said something similar about Brittain on June 19.
“There’s no way we can deal with Mr. Burden,” Arseneault said, due to “that outburst, that attitude.”
He said Section 650 of the Criminal Code of Canada allows the court to go ahead with matters in his absence if he persists in disrupting the proceedings.
Arseneault said he was going to delay the bail hearing given the situation, setting it over to Aug. 28. At that time, he said, Burden would appear remotely by video from jail, giving him another chance to participate in the bail hearing in the hope that he’d contain his outbursts.
“If he doesn’t, he’s going to be silenced,” Arseneault said, referring to the option of muting the defendant during the video conference.
Paik said one of the reasons Burden was brought to court in person Monday was because he’d previously hung up during remote appearances.
“Well, if he hangs up, he obviously doesn’t want to participate,” the judge said, noting the prognosis for an orderly court appearance in person isn’t promising.
The bail hearing is something of a moot point, as Burden had already been denied release on the charges that pre-date the June 19 incident.
Arseneault noted Burden has twice been assessed by forensic psychiatrists and has been found fit to stand trial.
Despite comments Burden made Monday, the judge didn’t record his pleas.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
""Big mix up going on here""
"Nothing but a witch hunt"
Mr. Burden says.
sounds a lot like someone south of the border