A visit with his niece ultimately went off the rails for Jodey Allan Oscer John Preston, who stormed out but not before giving the woman’s boyfriend a small push.
Although the push seemed harmless to Preston, his niece’s boyfriend thought otherwise and called police to report that he had been assaulted.
Appearing in Moose Jaw provincial court recently, Preston, 52, from Moose Jaw, pleaded guilty to assault and received a six-month conditional discharge (probation), with instructions to have no contact or be near his niece or her boyfriend.
“I’m guilty for pushing him. If that’s assault, that’s assault,” Preston told Judge Brian Hendrickson.
It is a minor shove, agreed Crown prosecutor Stephen Yusuff. He explained that Preston was at his niece’s house on Dec. 15, 2019, when he lost his temper and began to yell. His niece asked him to leave since she had young children in the house and didn’t want them exposed to that.
“As he was walking through the living room and to the front door, he saw (the boyfriend) and said he would ‘take him outside and pound the piss out of him,’” Yusuff continued. The boyfriend also asked Preston to leave, and while the latter was walking past, he shoved the boyfriend.
Preston admitted that he didn’t know what the definition of assault was today, considering all he did was give a slight push. Reading from the Criminal Code, Hendrickson replied that an assault “is the intentional application of force without consent,” which meant a shove could be an assault.
Yusuff suggested giving Preston six months of probation and ensuring no contact with his niece or her boyfriend. This should provide a cooling off period and hopefully lead to some kind of reconciliation with them.
While Preston agreed with the no contact clause, he pointed out his father lives with his niece and he sometimes has to pick up his dad for medical appointments. After some discussion, the judge added a clause that Preston could only visit his niece’s house to pick up his father.
“I’m not normally like that. Normally I sit at home. I have no life,” added Preston.
Moose Jaw provincial court next sits on Jan. 27.
