Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Calvin Barry, Criminal Lawyer

Conrad Black's son to plead not guilty
By Michele Mandel ,Toronto Sun
First posted: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 01:52 PM EDT

From left to right: Jonathan Black, defence attorney Calvin Barry, a court clerk and Judge Judge Faith Finnestad in this July 28 court sketch. (PAM DAVIES/Toronto Sun)

Conrad Black’s son will plead not guilty when he goes to trial in December on charges of criminal harassment and threatening bodily harm after an ex-girlfriend complained to police.

Jonathan Black, 33, was not in Old City Hall Tuesday morning when a judge was told that a scheduled June trial date had been postponed in hopes of reaching a “resolution” with the bond trader but now a trial will proceed on Dec. 15.

“He’s fine, he’s a professional and he’s pleading not guilty,” his lawyer, Calvin Barry, said outside the court.

Black was charged in December 2010 after his former girlfriend told Toronto Police that he would not leave her alone after the end of their one-year “tumultuous” relationship, calling and messaging her repeatedly and once leaving her as many as 60 text messages.

Black was released on bail on condition he not contact her again. Instead, police allege he resumed calling and texting, often to label her new boyfriend a “loser.”

He was charged again in March.

Black goes on trial Dec. 15 for the first set of charges and Jan. 17, 2012, for the second.

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/08/30/conrad-blacks-son-to-plead-not-guilty

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Friday, August 26, 2011

Calvin Barry Defends Macdermid Ermacora

Posted by Marianne Boucher Friday, August 19, 2011


http://www.courtsillustrated.com/

Calvin Barry Defends Jonathan Black


http://www.courtsillustrated.com/

Posted by Marianne Boucher Thursday, July 28, 2011

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Calvin Barry, Defence Lawyer for Ermacora

http://news.sympatico.ctv.ca/home/contentposting?feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&date=true&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20110824%2fcharges-upgraded-in-racquel-junio-death-110824


Clink link to view video of Calvin Barry on the Ermacora case.


Calvin Barry, Criminal Lawyer

Wed Aug 24, 09:50 PM

Charge upgraded to murder in death of Racquel Junio

ctvtoronto.ca

Gary Murray, 42, left, appears in a Brampton court to face an accessory to murder charge after the fact in connection with the death of Racquel Junio, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011.

Two men accused of abducting a Brampton, Ont. woman found dead last week appeared in court on Wednesday after learning their assault charges had been upgraded.

Macdermid Ermacora, 43, has been charged with first-degree murder and Gary Murray, 42, faces a charge of accessory to murder after the fact in connection with the death of Racquel Junio.

Both men also face charges of kidnapping and forcible confinement.

Junio, 42, went missing on Aug. 18 after police received a call that she had been forced into a black Ford pickup truck outside a home she shared with Ermacora, her estranged husband.

Her body was found in a pond in Palgrave, Ont., over the weekend, nearly 30 kilometers from her home. Police said her body showed obvious signs of trauma. An autopsy was conducted on Monday, but the results have not been made public.

Calvin Barry, Ermacora's lawyer, said the tragic event was traumatizing for everyone involved in the case, after Ermacora requested medical attention at Maplehurst Correctional Complex, where his is being held.


"A lot of people have conditions when they're in confined spaces and when they're dealing with these type of issues," he said.


Gary Batasar, Murray's lawyer, said his client has "got himself in a situation that we're going to fight vigorously and defend the case through the courts."


"It's very hard for us to believe what happened because he's not that kind of person," said Sandra Casciato, an acquaintance of Ermacora and Junio.


Casciato said she remembered Ermacora was upset in the weeks before his wife was killed.


"He was crying, he was upset that she was taking everything, he didn't know how to deal with it," she said.

Peel police have stressed that the investigation into Junio's death is still ongoing. Investigators have said that they are still trying to fill in a timeline of what happened the night she went missing.

Ermacora and Murray are both expected to return to a Brampton courtroom for a bail hearing on Aug. 29. Due to the severity of the charges, it's not expected it will be granted for the next few weeks or months.

Anyone who may have seen Ermacora's pickup truck on Thursday morning or anyone with more information is asked to call Peel Regional Police at 905- 453-3311 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

With files from CTV Toronto's Tamara Cherry.

http://m.ctv.ca/topstories/20110824/charges-upgraded-in-racquel-junio-death-110824.html

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Calvin Barry, Defence Attorney

Brampton man charged as search for missing wife resumes

2011/08/19 | Marcia Chen, CityNews.ca staff

Homicide detectives continued their search for a 42-year-old Brampton woman Friday morning, as a judge ordered her estranged husband to remain in custody.

Macdermid Ermacora, 43, has been charged with kidnapping, forcible confinement and assault in connection with the alleged abduction of Raquel Junio.

At the bail hearing in a Brampton court, Crown lawyer Steve Sherriff appealed to Ermacora to “come to his senses” and reveal Junio’s whereabouts. He called the case “most serious” and said he would seek a life sentence.

He will be back in court next Wednesday.

Police said Ermacora was checked into hospital on Thursday for a personal condition. Those who know him told CityNews he has suffered from mental illness in the past.

"He's very tired and everything happened so quickly. He is not guilty. It's an allegation," said Ermacora’s lawyer, Calvin Barry. "We have to see where it goes, it's very early in the investigation."

The search for Junio will include the Brampton area and Nottawasaga, northwest of Toronto, where Ermacora’s family reportedly has property.

Witnesses told police they saw Ermacora force Junio into a black pickup truck outside a home near Steeles Avenue East and Torbram Road before heading north early Thursday morning.

Officers arrested him near Queen Street East and Rutherford Road more than six hours later and found the vehicle nearby.

They are asking anyone who might have seen the truck between 1:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. Thursday to call them. Peel police released a video of the truck on Friday afternoon.

Junio is Filipina, five-feet-two-inches tall, weighs 120 pounds and has shoulder-length black hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information should call Peel Regional Police at (905) 453-2121, ext. 2133 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/149282--brampton-man-charged-as-search-for-missing-wife-resumes
Husband charged with murder in Brampton kidnapping

Trinity Radio Toronto / News / Breaking News and Upcoming Events / Husband charged with murder in Brampton kidnapping


A Brampton man now faces a first-degree murder charge in the kidnapping and slaying of his wife.


Macdermid Ermacora, 43, is also charged with kidnapping and forcible confinement in last weeks abduction of Raquel Junio from the familys Deerfield Cres. home.


Junios body was recovered Saturday night from a small lake in Palgrave, north of Bolton.


A justice of the peace in Brampton court today ordered Ermacora not to have contact with several people, but prohibited publication of their names.


Former Crown attorney Calvin Barry, now a defence lawyer, appeared on behalf of Ermacora, who wore a wrinkled white t-shirt and stood silently in the prisoners dock.


He is to return to court again on Aug. 29.


Another man, Gary Murray of Brampton, is also charged with kidnapping and confining Junio. He is also charged with being an accessory after the fact in Junios slaying.


Murray was ordered to appear Thursday in Brampton court for a bail hearing.


http://trinityradio.ca/torontonew/news/husband-charged-with-murder-in-brampton-kidnapping

Friday, August 5, 2011

Calvin Barry- Lawyer for VAIVE

Former Leaf Vaive testifies he felt fine to drive

Former Toronto Maple Leafs captain Rick Vaive outside a Newmarket courthouse on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011.

The Canadian Press

Date: Friday Aug. 5, 2011 2:33 PM ET

NEWMARKET, Ont. — Former Toronto Maple Leafs captain Rick Vaive says he broke his own rule about drinking and driving the day he was arrested and charged by police.

Vaive told a Newmarket, Ont., court today he normally doesn't drive after having three drinks, but took the wheel after having six beers at a golf game on July 14, 2009.

He was arrested that night in Vaughan, Ont., just north of Toronto, and charged with impaired driving and driving with over 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.

Vaive, 52, maintains he wasn't drunk and felt fine to drive from the golf course in Gravenhurst, Ont., to his home in Oakville, Ont., about a three-hour trip.

If convicted, Vaive could face for each charge a minimum fine of $1,000 and maximum of five years in prison for a first offence.

Vaive became the first player to score 50 goals in a season for the Maple Leafs in 1981-82, a feat he repeated the following two seasons.


http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110805/rick-vaive-impaired-driving-trial-110805/20110805/?hub=TorontoNewHome

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Calvin Barry and Mason Millar Defend Rick Vaive

Vaive testifies at his drunk driving trial
Michele Mandel
Yesterday at 8:25 PM



Former Leafs captain Rick Vaive leaves the Newmarket courthouse on Wednesday. (STAN BEHAL, Toronto Sun)

NEWMARKET — You couldn’t help but cringe in sympathy and embarrassment for former Leafs captain Rick Vaive.

But I guess that was the idea.

Taking the stand in his own defence on impaired driving charges, Vaive took a deep breath and confessed that he’s always had a bladder control problem and even has to carry an empty Gatorade bottle in the car with him wherever he goes.

“The bottle was full that day unfortunately,” he testified Wednesday.

That humiliating admission — elicited by his own lawyer — seems designed to explain why Vaive had a urine stain on his shorts when he was arrested for drunk driving and brought into the York Regional Police station two years ago.

So incontinence — not alcohol — was to blame.

Vaive said he lied when he told police he’d only had one beer that day. In fact, he said he drank six cans of Coors Light while golfing with his former hockey buddies in Gravenhurst but maintained he wasn’t impaired. “I thought my ability to drive was fine, I had no problem with it,” he insisted. “If I had of, I wouldn’t have driven.”

At about 8 p.m. on July 14, 2009, Vaive was on his way home to Oakville in his Ford F-150 pickup truck when he was pulled over by police on the southbound Hwy. 427 ramp from Hwy. 407. A witness had reported seeing him driving erratically in a Woodbridge parking lot. Handcuffed and placed in the cruiser, he was taken back to the station where he was charged with impaired driving after police say he blew more than twice the legal alcohol limit.

The news didn’t leak out to the media until several months later. Vaive, 52, has pleaded not guilty in the judge-alone trial before Justice Anne-Marie Hourigan.

After the Crown closed its case — the trial opened in February and was adjourned until now due to scheduling difficulties — the former Leafs star was called to the witness box.

It was finally his turn to give his side of the story. His turn to repolish a tarnished image.

The first Leaf to ever score more than 50 goals in one season, Vaive was team captain from 1982 to 1986, before being stripped of the C for missing a practice. Court heard the retired 14-year hockey player earns his living these days with public appearances, speaking engagements and stints on a few corporate boards all because of his former NHL status.

His image then is obviously key and yet the silver-haired father of two readily admitted to a multitude of physical and emotional ailments — including anxiety that requires a daily dose of Clonazepam, sleep apnea, a weak bladder, hip and prostate problems.

Yet his reputation can withstand all those far better than a conviction for impaired driving. And so Vaive blamed them all for his behaviour following his arrest while maintaining he was not drunk. He told the court he only lied to police because of nerves.

“Have you been consuming alcohol?” the cop had asked him during the video recorded breathalyzer test.

“Not today,” Vaive replied. “I had one beer.”

“Okay, that’s alcohol,” the officer pointed out. “Just one?”

“Right,” a weary Vaive responded. “It would have been about 2 o’clock.”

He now says he had his sixth beer at about 5 p.m. before heading home from cottage country. The former hockey great told defence lawyer Mason Millar that he didn’t tell the truth initially because he’d been up all night playing cards and was overtired and nervous.

“It was something I’d never been through before and it was something that just came out,” Vaive explained.

The defence seems to be suggesting the breathalyzer was mistaken. Cross-examined by Millar, the Crown toxicologist had testified that a 6-foot-1, 218-pound man — Vaive’s vitals at the time — who drank six cans of light beer between noon and 5 p.m. would not blow over the limit three hours later.

With the day of embarrassing admissions finally over and his cross-examination scheduled for Friday, the former Leafs captain left the courthouse with media cameras chasing him down the parking lot.

But no one else seemed to even know who he was.

Read Mandel Wednesday through Saturday.

michele.mandel@sunmedia.ca or 416-947-2231

http://m.torontosun.com/2011/08/03/vaive-testifies-at-his-drunk-driving-trial