TORONTO — Former trend mogul Peter Nygard’s authorized workforce has requested an Ontario court docket to evaluation a call to disclaim him bail as he appeals his sexual assault convictions and sentence.
TORONTO — Former trend mogul Peter Nygard’s authorized workforce has requested an Ontario court docket to evaluation a call to disclaim him bail as he appeals his sexual assault convictions and sentence.
Nygard’s attorneys argued earlier than the Court docket of Attraction for Ontario on Tuesday that the motions decide made a number of errors in dismissing the 83-year-old’s bail utility final month.
They mentioned the motions decide “unfairly discounted” the worth of a brand new medical report and “failed to understand” the association that Nygard was proposing for his launch on bail.
The decide who rejected Nygard’s bail utility wrote on the time that his attraction seemed to be “weak” and that he presents a flight danger since he faces {charges} in different jurisdictions.
Nygard was discovered responsible of 4 counts of sexual assault final yr after a number of girls got here ahead with allegations courting from the Nineteen Eighties till the mid-2000s. His jail sentence quantities to rather less than seven years, after time he already spent in custody was factored in.
His attorneys have raised a number of grounds for attraction, together with that his sentence is “extreme” and that the trial decide made a number of errors, together with admitting knowledgeable proof on the results of trauma.
In her bail utility determination, Attraction Court docket Justice Lene Madsen wrote that the brand new medical report Nygard submitted relied closely on self-reported data and that his well being wants had been thought of on the sentencing stage.
However one in all Nygard’s new attorneys, Alan D. Gold, advised the court docket Tuesday that the geriatric medication specialist who ready the report examined Nygard for greater than 4 hours at a clinic.
“It isn’t simply based mostly on what Nygard mentioned, it is based mostly on the whole protocol for a bodily examination of a person his age,” Gold advised Affiliate Chief Justice Michal Fairburn.
Madsen additionally raised points with Nygard’s proposed plan to reside in a Winnipeg property, now owned by one in all his workers, whereas out on bail.
Gold mentioned Nygard’s proposal is to primarily stay below home arrest at that residence with two live-in caregivers, and he would solely depart for medical appointments. He identified that Nygard is frail and in a wheelchair, with very restricted mobility.
The person who owns the Winnipeg property – bought with Nygard’s cash and valued at $1 million – would solely act as a “cash surety” for Nygard, court docket heard Tuesday.
“The argument for launch subject was that the applicant would by no means be ready to lose $1 million {dollars} by breaching any launch order,” Nygard’s attorneys wrote of their written submissions.
Crown lawyer Emily Marrocco advised the court docket Tuesday there’s “no debatable proof” that the motions decide misunderstood the character of Nygard’s new medical report – which she argued didn’t include any “game-changing” data.
Marrocco additionally famous that Nygard can be leaving the province if bail is accredited, and he would haven’t any “supervisory surety” there.
Gold argued that Nygard just isn’t a flight danger, particularly in relation to crossing the land border.
“He cannot go to america. He is wished there,” he mentioned, referring to the fees Nygard faces in that nation.
Nygard, who rose to fame after founding a girls’s trend firm that in the end grew to become Nygard Worldwide, was first arrested in Winnipeg in 2020 below the Extradition Act after he was charged with 9 counts in New York, together with {sex} trafficking and racketeering {charges}.
In Might, Manitoba’s highest court docket dismissed Nygard’s utility for a judicial evaluation of his extradition order, discovering there was no motive to intervene with the order issued by then-justice minister David Lametti.
Nygard additionally faces felony {charges} in Quebec and Manitoba, which haven’t been examined in court docket.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Nov. 5, 2024.
Sonja Puzic and Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press
