An Ontario courtroom has declined to assessment a choice to disclaim Peter Nygard bail whereas the previous style mogul appeals his sexual assault convictions and sentence.
In a ruling launched Friday, a Courtroom of Enchantment for Ontario choose stated the choose who dismissed Nygard’s bail software final month made no debatable errors in assessing his case, and there could be “no cheap probability of success ought to a assessment be ordered.”
Nygard’s attorneys had argued the bail choose “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.
In addition they argued the bail choose failed to understand the energy of one of many grounds for attraction associated to the admission of professional testimony on the consequences of trauma.
The bail choose discovered his attraction seemed to be “weak” and that he had a larger incentive to flee since he faces charges in different jurisdictions.
The 83-year-old Nygard was discovered responsible of 4 counts of sexual assault final 12 months after a number of girls got here ahead with allegations courting from the Eighties till the mid-2000s. His jail sentence quantities to rather less than seven years, after credit score for the time he already spent in custody earlier than and through trial.
Nygard’s authorized group is difficult each his conviction and sentence, arguing the trial choose made a number of errors, together with admitting the professional proof on trauma.
On the bail software listening to final month, Nygard’s attorneys submitted a brand new medical report they stated had not been prepared in time for the sentencing course of.
Nevertheless, Enchantment Courtroom Justice Lene Madsen discovered the brand new report relied closely on self-reported info and that his well being wants had been taken under consideration throughout sentencing.
Nygard’s attorneys argued final week that the report was ready by a geriatric medication specialist who examined Nygard for greater than 4 hours.
Madsen made no errors concerning the medical report and it was open to her to search out the report “didn’t change the well being panorama,” the courtroom stated in Friday’s ruling.
“She rigorously thought of and precisely captured the content material of these experiences. She merely expressed skepticism over the content material and impression of that proof for functions of launch,” Affiliate Chief Justice Michal Fairburn wrote.
Madsen had additionally raised points with Nygard’s proposed bail plan, which might have him reside in a Winnipeg house now owned by one in every of his workers.
Nygard’s attorneys argued Madsen misunderstood the proposal, and that the person who owns the Winnipeg residence wasn’t meant to behave as a surety however merely to verify that the courtroom might transfer on the $1 million property if Nygard breached the circumstances of his bail.
In her ruling, Fairburn wrote that whatever the surety matter, Madsen’s evaluation had centered on the appropriate challenge: whether or not Nygard had proven he would give up himself into custody if he was launched on bail.
“She gave causes for why she concluded that he had a larger incentive to flee now than when he was detained pending trial. She additionally made particular reference to his deep pockets, to his historic non-compliance with courtroom orders, and to his lack of connection to Winnipeg,” Fairburn wrote.
As for the professional proof on trauma, Madsen didn’t make any errors in assessing its significance, Fairburn wrote.
The bail choose “in the end concluded that, weighing all the elements, the general public’s confidence within the administration of justice could be undermined by the applicant’s launch pending attraction,” she wrote.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Nov. 11, 2024.
